School is for Ghouls
by Ascensions
Summary: Ethan Kramer is a pretty average fifteen year old boy, until the day his life changed. Now he is forced to go to a private school that is exclusively for girls, and if that wasn't bad enough...all of the girls are monsters.
1. Chapter 1 Welcome to School

**-Welcome to School-**

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><p>How did I end up here? Somehow, when I was supposed to be taken to my new private school, I ended up in this creepy looking house that was supposed to pass for a school. Yeah, it is a private school, but it is a private school for GIRLS, which I am clearly not. Oh yeah, and just as an added twist, it's also a school for monsters. I know, hard to believe right, but I swear it's true. Now I have to live in the same school as a bunch of little girl ghouls, a seven year old mummy, a ten year old werewolf, a thirteen year old ghost, and a fifteen year old frankenteen, which just happens to be how old I am, but that's besides the point.<p>

Well, I'm sure you're wondering how a fifteen year old boy could have ended up in an all girls private school. To answer that question, you have to first understand that my parents are idiots! It all started when I got kicked out of my most recent school two months into the year. I had gone through three different schools in the last two years because kids have a tendency to try and pick on me for some reason. The problem with that is that I have a tendency of punching the people that try to mess with me in the face. I was never good at school anyway. All I was good at was lying, fighting, and picking locks (There's a long story behind that one so don't ask about it.)

"Nervous," my mom asked as we drove through the middle of nowhere.

I didn't answer her. I wasn't too thrilled about going to this new private school. At the time, I was told that it was an all boys school. Not much fun, especially since it was probably full of those snotty rich kids. Plus, I left behind a lot of good friends back in my old school. I wasn't in school very long, but we lived in the neighborhood all summer before school had started. I made a couple of really good friends back there. And it wasn't like I was a bad kid either, okay; I was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something bad would happen and I would show up after it happened, and then I would be blamed for it. Completely unfair, but my parents were the only ones that ever believed me.

"Well, we don't have much choice, so you're going to have to deal with it for a little while," my mom said.

"Why should I," I asked.

"Because this was the only school that would accept you," she said.

I didn't say anything that time. I know it sounds like I don't like my parents, but I was just frustrated at the time. My parents were the best. I know that they were only doing this to help, because they loved me, but that didn't mean that I had to like it. I felt bad knowing that I was wasting their money, but I couldn't help it. I hated when people tried to take advantage of me. It was the one thing that pissed me off more than anything.

I looked out the window at the world around us and watched the forest go by. The trees were a beautiful bright green. We rushed past them, giving the appearance that they were moving and we were sitting still. I saw a tunnel in front of us. It seemed really weird. There was no reason for it to exist, but it was there all the same. The car sped into the tunnel and things kept getting weirder. We were immediately surrounded by darkness, and I mean pitch black, can't see a thing, darkness. There was no light entering the tunnel from either end of it. Our only light was the cars headlights. The strangest part, though, was that my parents never seemed to notice it.

We came out of the tunnel and the weirdness continued. What was a bright and sunny day when we had entered the tunnel, had turned into a rainy, creepy, cloud covered day in the matter of a few seconds. The trees around us all seemed to have died in a matter of seconds as well. A beautiful, almost summer-like day had just turned into the worst fall day I had seen in a while. And yet, my parents had still not noticed the strange shift.

That was when I first laid eyes on my new, "school," if that's what you want to call it. To be honest, the place just looked like a rundown old mansion. The weird part, though, was that the storm clouds seemed to be attracted to the old place. As we approached it, the storm got even worse. The rain came down harder and faster than ever, lightning flashed all around us, and thunder sounded loud in the distance. And my parents still didn't see it.

We pulled up to the house. I didn't want to get out of the car, but I forced myself to do so. I looked up at the mansion. To sum up its appearance in one word, the place was intimidating. To put it into five words, it was intimidating, creepy, old, rundown, and downright scary…..Okay, so technically that's six words, but whatever. That should give you a pretty good idea. To give you the best explanation, it looks like that old scary house on the corner of the street in every horror flick you've ever seen.

I said my goodbyes to my parents and they left me there, in the rain, to enter a scary looking house that was surely abandoned. I don't know what was wrong with them, but something definitely was. I walked up the steps of the mansion. Each one of the steps creaked under my weight. I half expected the porch to collapse in on itself when I stepped up onto it, but it didn't. I looked at the door. The wall above the door looked like it had been broken and replaced several times. There was a window on each side of the door, which seemed pointless to me since both of the windows were shattered.

I approached the door and knocked on it, and thinking that it would fall over at the slightest touch. It didn't, but it still looked like it would. "Hello," I yelled.

There was no answer.

However lucky, or unlucky, it was, the door was unlocked. I opened the door and walked into what I was now completely convinced was an old abandoned house. The foyer was a complete wreck. The walls were falling apart, the wood was rotting all over the place, the floor was covered in dirt, everything was covered in spider webs, and everything else was covered in dust. The room was pretty much empty other than two wardrobes, both covered in spider webs and both falling apart. One wardrobe was in the left corner and the other was in the right corner, both of which on the side of the room opposite of me. The wardrobe on the left was missing its legs, so it was just sitting on the ground. The one on the right was missing both doors, which didn't matter since it was empty anyway. There was a staircase on the left side of the room and on the wall directly opposite of me was a doorway that opened up into a hallway that led to who knows where. There was also no light in the room, no chandelier, and no lamp, no anything.

"Hello," I called into the mansion, though, I was sure that no one would answer me.

"Just a minute," a strange feminine voice answered me.

I was amazed to hear someone else's voice. I was even more amazed to find out that someone actually lived in that house. I pictured myself trying to tell them that I had been dropped off here by mistake, my parents thinking that it was my new school. I mean really, who could mistake this place for a school?

After a few minutes, a short woman entered the room through the doorway on the other side. She was wearing a short, pink, strange looking kind of outfit that looked like it was from ancient times. Her hair was pure black and had a sort of afro style to it, though; it was something that I had never seen anyone do before. Well, I give her points for originality anyway.

The woman eyed me somewhat suspiciously. "And who might you be?"

"Yeah," I said, "This might sound crazy, but, my name is Ethan Kramer, I was supposed to…"

"Ah yes," the woman said, cutting me off mid-sentence, "You are the new student. I am proud to be the first to welcome you to Ms. Grimwood's finishing school for ghouls."

_Wait did I just hear her right_, I thought. "Finishing school for _ghouls_?"

"Yes," the woman said, "Ghouls, you know: vampires, phantoms, werewolves, and such things."

"Yeah okay," I said, "So who's the master mind behind this joke?" Really, I thought, who had ever heard of a school for ghouls. Even thinking about it made me laugh. And how could anyone think that anybody could fall for such a lame prank. Really, some people just have no imagination. But the woman was either really persistent, or I really was in a school for ghouls.

"Oh, I forgot," Ms. Grimwood said, "You are a mortal. You creatures are so very difficult sometimes. Well, I assure you that this is truly a school for ghouls, girl ghouls more specifically. You are the first mortal to ever attend the school, and the first male student as well. This should be very fun, don't you think."

"Yeah sure," I said, "Then who does that make you?"

"I am Ms. Grimwood quite obviously."

Oh great, I thought, so the owner of this house, or school, or whatever the hell it is, is a psycho and expects me to believe that this is a school for monsters. I was sure that I had just found the most insane person in the existence of the entire world. My first instinct was to get out of there as fast as I could.

"Yeah well," I said trying to be casual, "Since this is a monster school and a girls school, which I am clearly neither, I'm just gonna go ahead and go back home." I started to move towards the door, but Ms. Grimwood stopped me. She grabbed my shoulder. When she did, one of her fingernails, which were longer than they should have been, scratched my neck, causing a small wound that bled a little.

"Sorry dear," Ms. Grimwood said trying to sound like she actually was, "But you have already been enrolled in the curriculum. Once that is done, you cannot leave. Now, if you need to be convinced that this is a school for ghouls, then let me introduce you to the other students." Miss Grimwood turned towards the staircase on the left side of the room and called up to the second floor, "Girls, come down and meet our newest student!"

Miss Grimwood wasn't kidding. Within a few minutes, four of the scariest looking kids I had ever seen came down from the second floor and all stood in a line. My first thought was, _what kind of school only has four students_, my second thought was, _my god they really are monsters_, _and all of them are girls too_, and my third thought was, _hey, that one's kind of cute._

It was clear that all of the girls really were monsters because none of them looked like normal kids. There was this little girl who would have been the cutest little thing you've ever seen if it wasn't for the fact that she was wrapped head to toe in pure white bandages. The only other thing she wore was a red bow on top of her head. She was completely covered in bandages otherwise except for her eyes and her mouth, which both looked normal enough. She looked like she had been in a bad accident, but, in reality, she was a mummy.

The other girls weren't much better. There was another rather short girl, a little taller than the mummy girl, but only slightly. She was covered in light brown fur, though she had curly orange hair for some reason, and she wore a little blue dress. She had very sharp teeth that could easily kill someone if she bit them in the right place. She seemed like the kind of person that you didn't want to mess with. Especially since she was a werewolf

The last two girls were about twice the size of the shorter girls. The taller of the two, well, she wasn't really taller actually, she was floating about a foot off of the ground and it made her look taller than the other girl next to her. She was completely blue all over. Everything, her skin, her torn up dress, her eyes, all of it was the same icy blue color. She even glowed that color for some reason. The only thing on her that wasn't blue was her hair. It was pulled into a ponytail except that the ponytail was in the front so it covered up half of her face. Her hair was pure white, like winter wonderland white, with an icy blue streak going down the center of it. She would have been cute, if she wasn't a phantom that is.

The last girl was the tallest of all of them. Again, she looked shorter than the phantom girl, but she was really taller than her. The phantom girl was floating so she looked…well you get the picture anyway. The last girl had light brown skin that looked like it had been stitched together in certain parts. Her hair was black with white highlights and it stuck straight up in the air as if she had been electrocuted multiple times. She wore a dark green dress with a purple sash tied around her waist. She wore big wooden sandals that probably raised her up a good foot as well, though; I could tell that she would still be taller than the other girls without them. The strangest part about her, though, was the two small metal bolts sticking out of the sides of her neck. She had to be a teenage Frankenstein, a frankenteen if you prefer.

Ms. Grimwood introduced the girls one by one, starting with the little mummy girl. "This," she said, "Is Tanis." She moved on to the werewolf girl, "Winnie." The phantom, "Phantasma," the frankenteen, "Elsa," and then she pointed to an empty space which I thought was kind of weird. "And, oh dear," she said realizing that whoever she was going to introduce wasn't there, "Where is Sibella?"

"Oh yeah, she's…" Phantasma started to say. Whatever she said next was drowned out by a very strange, very loud screech that seemed to be sounding right next to my ear. It sounded like a very angry bat trying to get to its next meal. None of the others seemed to be able to hear the screech.

That was when someone grabbed my shoulders and whispered in my ear. "Can I bite you," a very soothing, sensual voice said to me.

"Sibella," Phantasma yelled. I wasn't sure what was going on, and I had no idea what that voice wanted, but Phantasma was clearly trying to stop it. I tried to break whoever's grip was on me, but it was too late. Suddenly, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my neck where Ms. Grimwood had accidentally scratched me. It felt like I had been stabbed in the neck by a couple of pushpins.

I tried to break away from whoever was attacking me, but I had no hope. _Really_, I thought, _I can take down the biggest, toughest guys at my old school, but I can't take down a student at an all girls school_? I later found out that the girl attacking me was a vampire, which has strength six times that of a normal human, so it was more like I was being attacked by a body builder, perfectly reasonable that I couldn't break her grip right. Anyway, my strength started to leave me after a few seconds. I could feel blood being pulled out of my neck from the spot that the pain had come from. I started to feel light headed and my vision started going blurry. After a minute or two, I blacked out and hit the floor face first.

I woke up about an hour later with Tanis, Winnie, Elsa, and Phantasma standing over me. I tried to sit up, but my head started to spin when I did and I hit the floor again. I had never felt so weak in all my life. It was probably the worst I had ever felt in a long time.

"Oh good," Phantasma said, "You're awake." Then she started laughing for some reason as if the fact that I was awake was somehow hilarious to her. Her voice was very strange. She kind of giggled whenever she talked almost like she was laughing at every word she said. I really didn't understand it.

"You okay," Winnie asked. Her voice was kind of scruffy, almost like the kind of voice you would expect a dog to have, if a dog could talk of course.

I sat up very slowly, afraid that I would pass out again if I tried to strain myself too much. "Yeah," I said, "I am now." I reached up to feel the scar that should have been left on my neck where I had been bitten. I wasn't sure how I knew, but I somehow figured out that I had been bitten by something. I didn't know what at that point, but I had a few guesses. Instead of feeling the puncture wounds I had expected, I felt a small square bandage over the wounds.

"Who," I asked still in somewhat of a daze.

"Don't worry," Phantasma said, "I patched you up really good." She started laughing again like someone was making a joke. I don't know what was so funny because I was freaking out at that point, but Phantasma seemed to find some kind of humor in just about everything.

"Thanks," I said, still feeling awkward about the fact that she was laughing at me. Phantasma turned from icy blue, to bright red. It was weird; her whole body was glowing red. It must have been hard for her to hide when she was blushing, but she still tried her best to do so. Another thought I was having at the time was that Phantasma must be really bad at hide and seek, but that really didn't matter at the time.

"Now, now," Ms. Grimwood said in order to get everyone's attention, "That's enough excitement for one day. Phantasma, why don't you show our new student up to his room, but be quick, curfew is at eleven o'clock tonight and its eight-thirty already."

"Alright," Phantasma said, she laughed, then grabbed my hand, which I cannot figure out how that's possible to save my life, "Come on!" She ran up the stairs, dragging me along with her and laughing hysterically the whole way. We stopped in front of a very old door that looked about ready to fall off.

"Is this my room," I found myself asking.

Phantasma looked at the door suspiciously and then started cracking up. "No," she said trying to catch her breath and stop her laughter, "I just wanted to introduce myself properly since I never did get your name anyway." Phantasma held her hand out. "Phantasma, of course, there's no point in telling you, since you already know my name."

"Ethan Kramer," I said a little skittishly since I was shaking hands with a phantom and was still trying to figure out how I was able to touch her. However, part of me was actually starting to feel happy since Phantasma was being so friendly. Maybe, I would be able to make some friends here. Maybe, I could get something a little more out of this as well.

"Come on," Phantasma said while continuing to giggle. She was cute when she laughed. "Your room is this way." Phantasma turned and started walking down the hall. She stopped running and pulling me along, which was a relief. I followed her down the hall and thought a lot about what was going on. I found Phantasma somewhat difficult to follow since she was transparent. I would have gotten lost if she wasn't glowing so brightly. I still thought that Phantasma was kind of cute except for the fact that I kept reminding myself that she was a phantom.

The halls in that place seemed to go on forever. I was amazed when Phantasma finally stopped. She stared down the hallway in front of her. I looked down the hallway and I saw a girl dressed in a dark purple dress that was torn up at the bottom. It looked like the sleeves on her dress had been torn up too. She had long dark purple hair that matched the color of her dress and came all the way down to her ankles.

"That girl is Sibella," Phantasma said. "She's the one who bit you earlier." I looked at Phantasma and wondered what she was thinking. All she did was stand there and stare at me with a huge smile spread across her face. "I'll just let you introduce yourself then."

"Wait," I said, but I was too late. Phantasma sank into the floorboards until she disappeared completely.

With Phantasma gone, I didn't have much of a choice. I turned towards the girl who was still standing in the hallway completely unaware of my existence. She was standing in front of a very plain looking door that looked newer than the rest of the house.

I walked up to Sibella feeling very awkward. "Hey," I said as I came up to her.

Sibella looked up at me and smiled. My first thought was, _wow_! She was; how do I describe it? Oh yeah, beautiful. She had the prettiest green eyes I had ever seen, which somehow went perfectly with her light purple skin and her purple hair. I probably would have flipped for her instantly if it wasn't for the fact that I could see her fangs when she smiled. That just reminded me that she was a vampire.

"There you are," Sibella said when she saw me; "I was waiting for you. Oh, this is your room." She indicated the door that she had been leaning against. "I figured you would come by here eventually."

"Yeah," I said, "That is a pretty good assumption to make." I stood and stared at Sibella feeling as awkward as ever. All the people I have ever met, all the friends I had ever made, they all said it was surprising that I didn't have a girlfriend and had never had one for that matter. They said that I seemed like the type of person that would be able to hit on any girl I wanted, but the truth was that I was a wreck when it came to talking to girls. And the fact that this girl just happened to be a vampire didn't help matters much.

"So, anyway," I said trying to come up with something to talk about, "Why exactly were you waiting for me." I hadn't meant for it to sound bad, but, again, bad at talking to girls. Plus, I was nearly to the point of having a seizure.

Sibella seemed to take the comment kind of hard. Her expression saddened and she looked down at the floor as she spoke. "I, well, I just wanted to apologize for what happened earlier."

"For what," I asked a little bit confused.

She indicated the bandage on my neck as she said, "For that."

I felt the bandage on my neck. I had nearly forgotten about it, and about the fact that Sibella had bitten me and caused the need of that bandage. I pulled it off and felt the wound. I was surprised to find that it had already healed somehow. I don't know how it happened, but the bite mark, the puncture wounds, had already disappeared. "Oh, that," I said pretending like it didn't bother me, "No problem. See, it already healed."

"Well," she said, "I still wanted to apologize. Normally, I can control my urges, but, for some reason, when I smelled your blood, I just, I couldn't control myself. I'm not sure what it was, but something just compelled me. I guess that isn't much of an excuse, but I hope you'll forgive me."

"Yeah," I said, "No problem."

Sibella reached up for my neck. I panicked. I figured that she was going to try and bite me again. I moved fast and grabbed Sibella's wrists before she could get anywhere near my neck. Sibella jumped, being startled as she was, and nearly fell back, being saved only by the fact that I was still holding her up. I suddenly realized that she had only been making sure that the wounds really had healed already. I let go of her and we stood staring at each other silently.

"Sorry," I said after a moment.

Sibella stood holding her wrist as if I had hurt her. I felt really bad. I thought that I might have actually hurt her and I felt terrible about it. She seemed to be okay however. "Its fine," she said, "I wouldn't trust someone who bit me either."

"Well," I said still feeling bad about what I had done, "That really wasn't a reason for me to grab you like that. I'm sorry." I really was feeling bad at that point, but I wanted to get into my room more than anything else at that point. Sibella wouldn't let me though.

"Something wrong," I asked.

"No it's just that," Sibella paused, "Well, I know that you're probably going through a lot right now. I'm sure that you never expected to be thrown into an all girls school." _And don't forget monsters, you can't forget the monsters_, I thought, but I kept that part to myself. "But please stay. I'm sure that we could be friends. Everyone at this school is really nice, and kind, and friendly, and, well, I'm rambling now, but please stay."

I thought about what she said for a moment. I was still freaked out about the fact that I was in a school for monsters, but, in all honesty, I was starting to get over it. The girls all seemed really nice and some of them were kind of cute, aside from the fact that they were monsters. I thought that maybe I could stay here and not get myself killed, maybe. Besides, Ms. Grimwood already said that I couldn't leave.

"Okay," I said, "I'll stay."

"Promise?"

"Okay, I promise."

Sibella's expression brightened. She threw her arms around me and hugged me, which was kind of nice, but a little scary at the same time. I wasn't sure if staying was the right decision, but, at that moment, it seemed like the best choice I had ever made in my entire life.

"Thanks," Sibella said. She ran off after that leaving me standing there wearing a blank expression.

I opened the door to my room and went inside, shutting the door slowly behind me. The room was, I don't know, how do I put it, okay, here's a good one, plain. There was a very old, very dusty, window on the other side of the room, which I couldn't see out of so I doubted that it would let any light in during the day. Under the window was a very plain looking bed, and by plain, I mean that it had no sheets, no blankets, no pillows, no anything, and since I forgot to bring my own stuff, other than a pillow that is, I was starting to regret the way that I had packed my stuff. To the right of the bed, there was a single nightstand with a lamp on it, a lamp with no lampshade, or light bulb, which meant that this room was pretty much darkness twenty-four seven. It was lucky that the window let in just enough light to let me see. _Great_, I thought, _not even a day here and I'm already starting to hate it_.

I sat on my bed and thought about what had happened. _This is perfect_, I thought; _leave it to my parents to put me in a school like this_. Not only did they put me into a school for girls, but also a school for monsters. I couldn't believe that anyone would enroll there child into a school for monsters. I mean, wouldn't the application have some kind of giveaway on it, like a question that says, _what kind of monster is your child?_ Would someone really look at that and think, _oh yeah, that's a normal question for a school enrollment form_. I knew that I had to get out of there, I couldn't stay, there was no way; I would be eaten alive if I did. I looked over at the dusty old window. I thought that I might be able to escape through the window, but I quickly cast the thought aside when I suddenly remembered my promise to Sibella. For some reason, I didn't want to break it. Guess I was there to stay then.

I suddenly realized that I was grasping something in my pocket. I realized that it was a knife. My friend had given it to me just before I had left for this place. Actually, it was mine in the first place (I found it out on the street okay, FOUND IT). Anyway, I gave to him because, well, he wanted it, simple as that. But, before I left for this "school" he gave it back to me saying, "Here, you might need this to scare of those snotty rich kids." I knew that he really just wanted me to have something to remember my old neighborhood with. It was just a reminder that I still had friends back home no matter how many people hated me here.

That was when I heard a very familiar laugh that seemed to be coming from the room below me. I looked down at the floor and between my feet I saw the head of a transparent girl staring up at me with a very quizzical expression. I probably jumped about twenty feet in the air, which would have been an amazing action since my room was only fifteen feet high. I landed on my bed and tried to catch my breath since I felt like I could barely breathe anymore.

"Phantasma," I screamed as I realized who the girl was, "What the hell! Are you trying to give me a heart attack!"

Phantasma rose up from the floorboards so that her whole body was in the room now. At first I began to think, _Awesome, hot chick in my room, and on the first day too, not too bad if I do say so myself_. Then my senses came back to me and I thought, _HOLY SHIT! THERE IS A FUCKING GHOST IN MY ROOM!_ On a completely unrelated note, I also wondered how sex with a ghost girl was supposed to work, I mean, wouldn't I just like fall through her or something? And besides that, if I walked through Phantasma would that count as me getting laid? You know what, forget I said that.

"Sorry," Phantasma said. She stared at me with a very quizzical look on her face.

"What," I asked.

Phantasma started laughing at me, as if I was expecting anything different from her at this point. "I was just wondering how things went with Sibella," she said.

"Oh," I thought about it for a moment, "Well, she apologized for biting me, and then we talked for a little while, overall, I guess it went pretty well. Sibella is actually pretty nice, aside from the whole biting me thing."

"So, are you going to stay then?"

I had to sit and think about that one again. I really wanted to leave this place. I knew that I couldn't stay, not if I wanted to survive the night anyway. But, then I had made a promise to Sibella. Plus, Phantasma and Sibella both seemed pretty nice, and I emphasize the word seemed, that it kind of made me want to stay.

"Yeah," I decided, "I'll stay."

Phantasma stared at me for a long while and then began laughing at me once again. She then began to sink down into the floorboards until she disappeared from my room completely. I was alone now, confused, and a little bit angry, especially since I had just realized that Phantasma came into my room without my permission.

I was starting to think that everything that was happening was impossible to believe. How could a school like this even exist? I tried all of those cliché things that people do in movies when they think that they're dreaming. I closed my eyes, I pinched myself, and I told myself that it was all a dream, but none of it worked. I even considered jumping off of the roof of the house, but I realized that doing that might be bad for my health.

I was suddenly startled by the sound of someone knocking at my door. It wasn't so much the sound of someone knocking that startled me, but more the fact that someone in the house was actually considering the other people in the house. I honestly thought that all the girls would be as rude as Phantasma.

"Come in," I said, "The door is unlocked." It had to be really; there wasn't a lock on the door for me to lock it. I made a mental note to fix that later. It might be the only thing that would save my life.

The door creaked open and I saw Sibella walk into the room. I was kind of happy to see her, but I once again reminded myself that she was still a vampire. I would be keeping my distance so long as I remembered that fact.

"Hey," Sibella said.

"Hi," I said, though; somewhat awkwardly, "Did you need something?"

"Well," Sibella said, "Actually, I just thought of a way to apologize for what I did earlier."

I reached up and touched the spot on my neck where the bandage had once been. Sibella seemed saddened by the fact that she had reminded me of what had happened, but I reassured her with a quick smile.

"You know you don't have to," I said.

"Yes, I know," she said, "But I want all the same."

"Okay then," I said, "What did you have in mind."

"Well," Sibella said, "I thought that, since you're new here, I could show you around the school, at least get you used to the rooms you'll be using most often anyway."

"Oh," I said. I didn't really mean to sound as if the idea depressed me. Actually I really liked the idea. It sounded like a good idea, and I would be able to spend some more time with Sibella. It sounded like a good chance to get to know her better. The thing is, well, maybe I was kind of hoping for something along the lines of…you know what, forget it just forget it.

Sibella looked down and lost her formerly glowing expression. "Well," she said, "If you don't want to."

"No," I said, "I think it's a great idea."

Sibella smiled, I think she may have been blushing too. She grabbed my hand, said, "C'mon," and then pulled me out of the room and broke into a full sprint.

Sibella showed me the whole house, which included all of the other girl's rooms. There was Tanis' room, which looked to me like something that was taken right out of one of the pyramids of Egypt, Elsa's room, which looked like a laboratory straight from Frankenstein's castle, Winnie's room, which seemed to be a very large, indoor forest, I actually thought that we had accidentally stepped outside, and Phantasma's room, which was in the basement and looked like, well, a basement, though; there was a pipe organ in her room that caught my attention. Oh, and Phantasma's room was directly under mine, which probably meant that she would be bugging me 24/7.

Sibella also showed me the rest of the house, which included the dining room where we would eat, the kitchen where Ms. Grimwood would prepare all of our meals and such, and other rooms that I did not particularly care for. I really didn't pay much attention to the tour though anyway. What I was really interested in at the time was that I could spend some time with Sibella. She was a really nice girl despite what my first impression of her was. I could see that she would make a really good friend, though; I was still keeping my distance since she was a vampire. I was also glad that I was able to talk to some of the other girls while we were touring the house. Even though they were monsters, they were all really nice, and they all seemed eager to become friends with me. _Maybe_, I thought, _just maybe I can stay at this house and not get eaten alive._

Eventually, Sibella lead me back to my room. I had gotten a pretty good feel for the layout of the house, but I still needed help getting back to my room. I was about to turn in for the night, I hadn't even realized how late it was, when I thought of something that I had forgotten about before.

I turned to Sibella. "By the way," I said, "I almost forgot that I haven't introduced myself yet." I held out my hand in a friendly gesture. "Ethan Kramer."

Sibella took my hand and shook it. "Thanks," she said, "I didn't even realize that I never learned your name."

I smiled as Sibella let go of my hand. "So," I said, "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, goodnight," Sibella said.

"Goodnight."

I closed my door behind me. I listened to Sibella's footsteps as she walked down the hall. I looked up and stared into the darkness of my room.

I stumbled through the darkness, having barely enough light to see by, and finally found the edge of my bed. I sat down on my bed and found my traveling bag that I had left there earlier. I shuffled through my stuff until I found my cell phone. I turned my phone on and used its light to look through my bag. With a frustrated grunt I realized that I had forgotten to pack my Mp3 player. Music was the most important thing in my life. I felt like such an idiot for forgetting something so important.

I fell back and let my frustration subside. I looked at my phone. The time read 11:17. I knew it was late, but I didn't fell much like sleeping. I thought about staying up, especially since there was no one to tell me that I had to turn in for the night. But, after thinking about it, I realized that there was no point in staying up.

"Lights out," I said as my phone's backlight shut itself off. Then I lay down and allowed myself to drift off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2 A Morning Jog

**-A Morning Jog-**

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><p><strong><strong><strong>IMPORTANT NOTE (Please Read): I was recently browsing the internet and I found that someone had the nerve to copy two of my stories, post them on another website, and pass them off as their own work. Listen, you should never copy another persons work, it's just wrong and you will not get away with it. So always remember, respect the work that authors put into their stories and never try to copy them.<strong>****

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><p>I woke the next morning in a complete daze. I looked around and I suddenly became very confused. At first, it was because I had no fucking idea where I was. After I realized that though, I became even more confused because I didn't have a clock in my room so I had no way of knowing what time it was.<p>

Of course, that's why I carry around my handy little device that I like to call my cell phone. I found my bag lying on the floor next to my bed; guess I kicked it off by accident while I was sleeping. I grabbed my travel bag and searched through it for my phone. That was when I remembered that I was using it as a light the night before and had left it sitting on my night stand. Hey, new surroundings can have a strange effect on you okay? Anyway, I grabbed my phone so I could see what time it was. It was six thirty in the morning. I guess I had made a habit out of waking up early. That or I was so scared out of my mind that I woke up early so I could keep myself alive. Whatever the reason though, the fact was that I was up so I might as well do something.

I got up from my bed and decided to take a walk downstairs. I looked down at what I was wearing. Since I had fallen asleep in what I was wearing the day before like I usually seemed to do I decided not to change just because I was lazy. Not like anyone was up yet to see me anyway. I left my room and started to head downstairs. No one was up, as I had expected, and I didn't really know when classes would start so I decided to see if I could find Ms. Grimwood anywhere.

I found myself walking into the kitchen where I found Ms. Grimwood tending to something cooking on the stove. She seemed busy enough so I didn't want to disturb her. Then again, I did still have some questions that I needed to ask and I was sure that she could spare some time for me.

"Hello dear," Ms. Grimwood said as she saw me, "You're up quite early are you not?"

"Yeah," I said, "It's kind of a habit I guess."

"Well," Ms. Grimwood said, "The early bird catches the worm as they say. How are you adjusting to the school?"

"Good enough I guess," I said. I was over exaggerating a little bit, though I didn't' mention that. I was getting use to the school, but it would still take a whole lot of convincing before I would let my guard down around any of these psychos. I continued to lie to keep myself covered though. "I talked to all of the girls last night, and we got along pretty well. I think I might be over them being monsters." _Not_, I thought to myself, but I didn't say it out loud.

"Well that's good," Ms. Grimwood said, "I want you to be able to feel at home here like all of the others do."

_Fat chance that will ever happen_, I thought, but, again, I never said that out loud. "That would be nice," I said with a hint of sarcasm. "So, anyway," I said trying to change the subject, "When's breakfast?"

"We'll be eating once the others wake up," she said, "About thirty minutes."

"Awesome," I said, "I'm starving."

I walked over and smelled what Ms. Grimwood was cooking. I started gagging before the smell even hit the edge of my nostrils. I honestly thought that I was going to die just from smelling that….whatever it was. To describe it would be murder, and in all honesty, you do not want to know what it was like. If you really want to try and imagine how horrible it was then imagine the worst smell that you have ever come across. Now, multiply that stench by ten and you can start to have an idea of what I was feeling in that kitchen. I fell backwards in order to get as far from that stuff as possible and I nearly threw up all over the floor.

I gathered my thoughts and managed to take a look at what was cooking, after I got up off of the ground mind you. _What the hell is that_, I thought to myself. What was cooking in the frying pans, well, actually there were four frying pans each cooking the same disgusting looking…..can I even call it food? In each frying pan was what looked like an old muddy rag that someone had gotten pissed off at and had decided to stomp on it out of shear frustration; really, did she expect people to eat this stuff?

"What in the world is that," I asked.

"Why, they're expired dragon eggs of course," Ms. Grimwood said, "Haven't you ever seen them before?"

_Oh yeah_, I thought, _because I go out every fucking day looking for expired fucking dragon eggs_. I was now sure of the fact that this place would be the death of me, expired eggs, and dragon eggs no less. Where the hell does she come off feeding me expired eggs? And where the hell does somebody even get dragon eggs?

"They smell awful," I said.

"I know," Ms. Grimwood said, "I can't wait for breakfast either."

_Oh yeah_, I thought, _I almost forgot that these people are fucking insane_. Of course, monsters would like expired food. I was sure that they probably ate rotten meat and fruit. They probably waited for the food to be at its worst before they started to even consider using it. I was starting to think that they would probably eat, like, bugs and stuff too. Cockroaches and other weird insects like that. Actually, I hear that if you dip them in chocolate cockroaches are supposed to be pretty good. I also hear that they are healthy for you too, contain a lot of protein or something…..wait a minute, what was I saying again?

I gave Ms. Grimwood a very quizzical look. It was the kind of look that you give someone when you want to ask, _Are you fucking kidding me_? Ms. Grimwood didn't respond to me after that. Instead, she decided to go back to her cooking. _Okay then_, I thought, _Guess I'll be skipping breakfast then_.

I left the kitchen and made my way back up to my room. Once I was their, I thought about what I should do for food. I couldn't eat whatever it was that this place was going to try and feed me, but I also couldn't go without eating. I was at a very difficult crossroad at this point. I grabbed my travel bag and searched through it, hoping that I had been smart enough to pack some kind of food. A snack, a sandwich, something that I could eat that wouldn't kill me.

Luckily, I found a bag of chips in their. Smashed and nearly uneatable, but they were still better than eating the food that Ms. Grimwood was cooking. I downed the bag in seconds and then sat on my bed in silence for a while after that. _I'm still hungry_, I thought to myself. My stomach decided to answer me with a very loud, and very aggravated sounding, growl. I knew that I needed something more to eat. My only choice was to go eat breakfast.

I stood up from my bed. I started hearing footsteps outside of my door, which indicated that the girls were up and were heading downstairs to eat breakfast. With nothing better to do, I left my room in order to join them.

When I got downstairs I found that the food was all gone. Not a single morsel was left for me. _So much for that idea,_ I thought. I walked into the dining room where I found the girls all sitting at a rectangular table still eating breakfast. I'm not sure why, but I decided to sit down in the only seat that was still open, which, ironically, put me right in between Sibella and Phantasma.

"Here," Sibella said as I sat down at the table. She slid a plate of food, if you could call it that, in front of me. "I figured that I would get some for you since Winnie usually eats everything."

"I do not," Winnie yelled from across the table through a mouthful of food and four empty plates sitting on the table in front of her.

I managed to give Sibella a smile. "Thanks," I said, "I think." I stared down at the plate of food in front of me. It still just looked like a plate with two muddy rags sitting on top of it. I prayed that whatever it was wouldn't kill me, and, reluctantly, I took a bite of it.

It tasted like the worst food you could possibly think of, but even worse. A lot of kids complain about eating broccoli or brussel sprouts, well; having to eat those would have been a blessing in disguise for me. I wanted to spit it out and wash my mouth out for the next hour. I wanted to throw the plate at the wall. More than anything, I wanted to throw up, but, mostly out of respect, I swallowed what I had in my mouth. Afterwards, I stood up from the table.

"Something wrong," Sibella asked.

"Don't you like it," Phantasma asked.

I really didn't want to insult anyone by telling them what I thought about the food. Then again, they might take me saying that the food was, and I quote, "The worst fucking thing I had ever eaten in my entire life," as a compliment. I decided not to tell them what I thought about it, regardless of how they might take the criticism.

"No," I said, "Just, not hungry that's all."

Phantasma seemed to buy my lie without any convincing. However, Sibella gave me a quizzical, almost accusing, look that told me that she was not convinced at all. Before she could say anything though, Ms. Grimwood came into the room. Everyone fell silent and looked at her as she entered the room.

"Alright everyone," Ms. Grimwood said, "You have exactly ten minutes of free time before classes start, you may use this time as you please."

As eager as I was to continue eating my delicious breakfast, I offered what was left on my plate to Winnie, who gladly took and ate it within seconds. I darted from the table, leaving everyone else behind, and ran upstairs and straight to my room. I shut the door behind me and looked around the room. It was as dark as ever, even with the sun out. I went over and tried to clean off the window so that I could at least see. I was able to clean it off enough so that it let enough light in for me to see.

I looked over at my travel bag. I wasn't really sure what I could accomplish with only ten minutes, but I decided that it was better to do something other than sit there and feel sorry for myself. I dug through my travel bag for my phone; honestly I should have just started carrying it with me from the start. I scrolled through my contacts until I came upon my home phone number. I hit send and waited for someone to answer.

"Hello," My mom answered on the other end.

"Hi mom," I said overjoyed to hear her voice and doing absolutely nothing to hide it.

"Ethan," my mom said as happy to hear me as I was to hear her, "Honey, it's Ethan," she called to my dad who was probably in the other room getting ready for work. If I was right, then my mom was in the kitchen getting breakfast ready, which was probably much better than what I just ate. I missed her cooking already. I heard my dad call something back that I couldn't hear clearly.

"Your father says hi," my mom said, though, I could hear the laughter in her voice. I was almost positive that my dad had probably made some kind of sarcastic remark about me, something like, "Oh, he's not dead yet, good," but my mom wasn't telling me that part. My dad and I always liked to joke around with each other like that.

"So," my mom said changing the subject before I could come up with a good comeback, "How's your new school?"

I told my mom all about the school and what I had thought about it. Okay, that was a complete lie. What I told my mom was the complete opposite of what was actually going on. I told her that I was adjusting pretty well, even though I was really on the verge of having a panic attack. I told her that I was getting along well with the other students, even though I was really scared to death of all of them because they were all monsters. I did tell her all about Sibella and Phantasma, even though I changed their names since their names were clearly not normal. Sarah and Paullina, two students and my two new friends that I had met on the first day and that I was getting along with very well. I had to change the stories around so my mom wouldn't get suspicious, but I kept most of it the same. The only thing that I forgot was that this was supposed to be an all boys school and Sarah and Paullina were clearly not boy's names.

"I thought that your school was a private school for boys," my mom said when I mentioned Sarah and Paullina (Sibella and Phantasma).

"Oh," I said as I realized how much of a fucking idiot that I was, "It was, I mean, it used to be, last year that is, and the years before that. Well, this year they started to let girls into the school." The line was silent for a while. I hoped that my mom would buy my story and that my own stupidity hadn't just bought me a one way ticket back home.

The thing I found strange as I was thinking about how much of an idiot I was as the line was silent was the fact that I was trying to stay at the school. I knew that if I had told my mom this really was a private school for girls then she would rush up to get me. I knew that I could have gotten out of there back then, but I didn't. For some odd reason, instead of ending my nightmare, I lied to my mother, which I hated doing by the way, and, in turn, practically gave myself a death sentence. The strangest part was that I never once regretted doing it.

"Well," My mom said finally ending the silence that had taken over our conversation, "That's fine, I guess, but I had better not hear about you being alone with any…"

"Mom," I screamed to cut her off since I knew exactly where she was going with that, "Don't worry. I won't do anything to get myself in trouble, not this time anyway."

Before my mom could say anything else, I heard my dad call something from the other room. Again, I couldn't hear him clearly because he was essentially trying to talk to me from the other side of the house, but I could imagine what he said. "Don't listen to your mother now," I pictured him saying, "You can be alone with anyone you want. Just make sure you tell me about it when you get back." It was probably something along those lines anyway.

"Honey," my mother said to him in a very accusing tone. That only confirmed that I was right about what he had said.

I started laughing and I was going to say something in return to what I imagined my dad had said, but then I realized how long I had been on the phone. "Mom," I said, "Classes are going to be starting soon, so I have to go, but there is one thing that I was hoping you guys could do for me."

"Of course," she said.

I asked her if she could bring my Mp3 player up to the house later since I had forgotten to pack it before I had left. I had already gone about half a day without it and I was already starting to break down. If I had to go a whole day…well, I didn't even want to think about what would happen. She told me she would be able to get it to the house later that night. I thanked her and we said our goodbyes before I hung up.

I sat down on my bed and looked out the window, which was looking much better now than it had when I arrived at that place. The sun was just beginning to rise. It was casting an orange glow on the dead forest that surrounded the house. The sky was still gray; however, even though the sun was high enough that it should have lit up the sky to its usual shade of blue. I was starting to think that everything in this place was made to be depressing.

I looked away from the window and down at my phone. The time showed that it had already been nine minutes since I had come up from breakfast, which left me with only one minute until I would start classes. I thought about calling my friend, the one who gave me the knife before I left, but I decided not to. There wasn't enough time and he was probably getting ready to leave for school himself.

I felt myself beginning to feel faint, like I was going to fall asleep if I sat there any longer. That was when I heard someone knock on my door. I was so faint that the sound startled me to the point that I nearly fell off of my bed. I was able to keep myself up though. I stood up from my bed and put my phone into my pocket.

"Come in," I said.

Sibella opened the door and stood in the doorway. "Classes are starting soon," she said, "You had better get downstairs."

"Oh yeah," I said remembering how long I had been sitting alone in my room. Sibella turned to go downstairs herself, but I stopped her before she could get too far. "Wait a second," I said, "What are the classes like here?"

It sounded like a strange question even to me. Honestly, what could the classes be like? I mean, aren't all schools the same? Don't they all have the same general classes? Well, that was what I thought at first, but then I started to think about it. This school was clearly unlike any that I had ever been to. It was a school for monsters after all, and, after what had happened at breakfast, I was starting to wonder what other kinds of things I should expect. This school could have all kinds of crazy surprises for me and I wanted to be prepared for the worst of them.

"Well," Sibella said, "This morning we will be taking a jog through the swamp."

"Wait a minute," I said in astonishment, "What? A jog? Through a swamp?"

"Yes," Sibella said, "It was an idea that Ms. Grimwood got from our gym teachers last year. They actually went to a place that was much more fun, but Ms. Grimwood thought that the swamp just outside the house would work just as well."

"So wait," I said, "Your talking the full deal right? Like quicksand and snakes and other stuff like that?"

"Yes, isn't it Fang-tastic?"

"Yeah sure," I said in the most sarcastic tone that I could possibly manage, "It does sound FANtastic." _Thank you last year's gym teachers_, I thought to myself, _Now I really am fucked_.

Sibella gave me a smile, which was kind of nice, and then she ran down the hallway and out of sight. I left my room and walked down the hall, following the same path that Sibella had taken. I have to admit that I was laughing the whole way down the stairs. _Fang-tastic_, I thought as I walked, _it sounds like something out of a bad cartoon or something_.

By the time I had reached the foyer it was about seven thirty. All of the girls were standing in a group in the middle of the room. As reluctant as I was, I joined them and was going to say something to Phantasma when Ms. Grimwood clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone," Ms. Grimwood said, "Come, follow me outside." We all did as she said and left the house through the front door, as cramped as it was. To this day, I still have no idea how that old, rotting porch was able to support everyone's weight, but it managed to by some miracle. Our little group made its way to the edge of the forest around the other side of the house. Ms. Grimwood stopped. "Okay everyone, the swamp is only a short walk into the forest from here. Now, split up and be on your way."

"Wait just a minute," I said now unable to keep silent with all of my arguments, "Split up!?" I waited for a response from someone, but none came. "So you mean to tell me, and stop me if I'm wrong, that we are going into a swamp, which has some, shall we say, hazardous elements, and we have to traverse it on our own?"

"Yes," Ms. Grimwood said without a second thought.

"Oh okay," I said, "I was just making sure I heard you right."

At that point I was starting to get a mixture of sadness, anxiety, and fear. I was afraid of going into the swamp by myself. Okay, saying that I was afraid is a serious understatement. I was on the verge of having a fucking seizure at that point. On the other hand, I was kind of depressed over the fact that I would be alone since I was hoping to spend some more time with my new friends. On an off note, I was also still brooding over the fact that I did not have my music and would have to wait through the entire day before I would get it back, that is, if I even survived the rest of the day.

Ms. Grimwood sent us all off after that. Everyone went into the woods, each of the girls taking a different path. I watched as each of them disappeared into the dark forest surrounding the house. For a moment, I just stood there alone and stared at the dead trees around me. The forest itself wasn't very inviting, on account of the fact that it was all deader than my great great grandparents, I had to wonder what the swamp would look like. Just the thought of it was making me shiver. After a few minutes of staring at the forest, I took a deep breath, picked a path that I had hoped would end up leading me in a giant circle back to the house, and then ran into the woods at full speed.

I would like to tell you that I had overreacted to the entire situation. I would like to tell you that I braved the forest, the swamp, and everything else that I had been afraid of doing. I would like to tell you that I came out of it all without a single scratch. I would like to tell you all of that, but I can't, well, I could, but I would be lying. The truth is that I got about six feet into the forest before everything went wrong. I was just starting to think, _hey, this isn't so bad_, when my foot got caught on a very large tree root and I ended up falling flat on my face.

I lay on the ground, face first in the dirt, for a couple of minutes. I'm not sure why I did it, but I just didn't feel much like standing up. After a few minutes, though, I decided that lying in the dirt wasn't doing me much good and I sat up. I wiped the dirt and mud off of my face, as best I could anyway, and I looked up at the sky. It was still an eerie gray color, even though it was sunny out and there was no sign of a storm approaching. _Great,_ I thought, _isn't this just the perfect fucking way to start the morning_.

"I hope you're all having as much fun as I am," I screamed into the air. I wasn't talking to anyone in particular, there wasn't anyone around to talk to after all, so I didn't expect to get an answer, but, of course, I got one.

"We sure are," someone called back to me.

I was taken back at first, but I gathered myself together after a moment. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to do so, but I decided to answer the voice. "Well, good for you then," I yelled. This time; however, there was no answer. It may have been because I was expecting one, or it may have been because I was hoping for one, but, for whatever reason, an answer never came.

I sat looking up at the sky for a good bit of time. I was still waiting for that voice to answer me, but they never did. After a while, I decided that sitting around doing nothing was pointless. I pulled myself up onto my feet and looked at the path ahead of me. I took another deep breath, preparing for what may lie ahead of me, and then proceeded, cautiously this time, down the path. It was, in my opinion, the biggest mistake that I have ever made. I should have just called it quits right there. I should have just turned around and went back to the house, but I was way too stubborn to do that.

For the next, let me see, I can't even remember how long I was out there anymore, I don't know, but for the longest time after I started down the path again I was fighting for my life. I stuck in about ten different mud pits, in which, I lost both of my brand new pair of ninety dollar boots that my parents had bought just before I left for the house. There were also snakes, a lot of snakes, I wasn't sure if any of them were deadly or not, but I wasn't getting close enough to check. They all looked angry enough to kill and that was enough for me to stay away from them. And did I mention the quicksand yet? No, well, there was a lot of quicksand as well. I spent most of my time trying to avoid the quicksand, actually, that was the one thing that I seemed to be able to avoid. I also came across these strange looking plants that were like, okay not like, they were, eyeballs on top of a very thin stem. I found out later that they were called poison EYEvy. Well, that's what we call a play on words kids.

I was out in that swamp for hours. I was beginning to feel like that place was going to be my grave. That was when I finally had a run of good luck, sort of. I was completely lost at that point and I was starting to lose hope when I came across a very old shack that seemed to be abandoned. Normally, I would have thought twice before entering an abandoned shack that was out in the middle of a swamp, which was pretty strange in itself, but I thought that it would be better than being in the swamp.

I made my way up to the shack, which, for some odd reason, had no door. I looked inside of it, mostly just to make sure that it really was abandoned, but it was also to make sure that there was nothing that would try and kill me inside. Luckily, the thing was empty. There was nothing on the floor, there was nothing on the walls, and there was nothing on the ceiling. The only thing that was in the shack was a small window on the wall to my right. There were also a bunch weird marks and scratches covering the walls, almost like there was some kind of fight that had happened within the shack some time ago. Then again, the marks could have just been made by the fact that thing was just really old, and in the middle of a swamp, which probably didn't help it.

I sat in a corner of the room, on the floor, the very dirty floor, because there was nothing to sit on, and I had never felt better. The floor wasn't very comfortable, but it felt really good to be out of the swamp, kind of. I didn't know how long I had been out there, but I was starting to get hungry and there didn't seem to be anything to eat for miles. I looked out of the shack's window and saw from fruit growing on a tree nearby. I was thinking about how nice it would be to have something to eat, but then I second guessed myself before I could even move. I knew that, no matter how good it looked, the fruit was probably rotten or something.

That was when things started to get bad. As my mind was drifting off thinking about food, I heard a noise coming from somewhere outside of the cabin. It sounded like someone was coming up to the cabin, but it sounded as if they had four feet, which, even considering where I was, seemed really weird. I gathered myself together and stood up. I instinctively reached for the knife that I had somehow managed to hold onto. I pulled it out of my pocket and flipped the blade open. I didn't know what was coming, but I was not going to take any chances.

Then the strangest looking creature I had ever seen appeared in the doorway of the shack. The thing had a body that looked like a giant lima bean that was way past its time. It had one big eye in the very center of its lima bean shaped body. The weirdest thing about it, though, was the fact that it had no arms or legs. Instead, it had tentacles, six in all, four that it used in place of its legs and two that it used in place of its arms.

"What the," I said trying not to laugh at the strange creature, "What the hell are you supposed to be?"

The creature glared at me with its one big eye. Honestly, if the creature hadn't looked so funny I might have been scared, but I just couldn't help how stupid it looked. "You don't need to know," the creature said. Just when I had gotten over how stupid it looked it gave me something else to laugh at. The creature's voice, which I expected to be at least somewhat intimidating, well, let me just say that it wasn't. Okay, the creature sounded like a little boy, which just made me laugh, I couldn't help it that time. "What," the creature asked, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," I said trying to stop myself from laughing.

"Hmmm," the creature said, "Well then, what are you doing here?"

I finally managed to stop my own laughter. The challenge was keeping myself from starting again. "Well," I said with some effort, "If you have to know, I go to Ms. Grimwood's school."

The creature seemed to think of something then because he got some kind of contorted smile. That was another gesture that almost got me laughing again. "Oh," the creature said very quizzically, "And what kind of monster are you?" The creature started moving towards me stretching its tentacle arms out as if it were going to try and grab me. "Revoltta will have her revenge on those little girl ghouls," it said as it got within arms, I mean tentacles length.

"Who," I asked as I tried to think of some way out of that place.

I knew now that the time for laughing at that thing was over. Whatever it was, it was serious. I had to escape it somehow, but it seemed to have the whole shack covered. There was no way that I could get around it. I looked around the shack and then noticed something that the creature seemed to have forgotten. The window was open. I waited a moment and then made a mad dash for the window. I was a little too late. Before I could get to the window, the creature grabbed my ankle with one of its tentacles. I fell onto the ground just inches from the window.

"You cannot escape the Grim Creeper," the creature said.

"Watch me," I yelled at it.

I gripped my knife to remind myself that I was still holding it. I held it high and brought it down on the Creeper stabbing it directly into the gnarled tentacle that was still wrapped around my ankle. Some sort of green liquid poured from the wound in the Creeper's tentacle. I wasn't sure what it was, a substitute for blood I suppose, but it looked like acid and I avoided touching it altogether. I pulled my knife from the Creeper's tentacle, it was covered in the same green liquid, and the Creeper immediately let go of me. I closed my knife and put it back in my pocket. The creeper retreated to a corner of the room and I ran out of the shack while he was crying over his newly acquired wound.

I ran as fast as I could from that place. I ran right past all of the things that had scared me when I had come through the area before. I didn't much care that they were there anymore. All I cared about was getting back to the house. In all honesty, I didn't even know if I was going towards the house. It was lucky that I ran into one of the girls. Well, actually, I ran through her, but that's not the point.

Phantasma let out a surprised yelp as I ran right through her. I stopped running when I heard her and turned around. "Phantasma," I yelled, "Thank goodness, it's good to see a friendly face."

"Why," she asked, "Did something happen?"

I was somewhat reluctant to do so, but I told Phantasma everything that had happened. I told her about my journey through the swamp as quickly as possible and I left out the embarrassing parts, which was most of it, so I didn't spend much time on that part. What I really focused on was my encounter with the Grim Creeper, as he called himself. I was not sure what it was doing out there, but something about what it had said scared me.

"Revoltta," Phantasma said when I had finished my story, "That's not good." She was silent for a moment as if she were thinking about something. "Come on, we have to get back to the house and tell Ms. Grimwood about this."

With that, Phantasma started to lead me back to the house. I started to notice some familiarity in my surroundings and I realized that we had left the swamp and were back in the forest that surrounded the house. It wasn't long before we were back in the house's backyard. Everyone was gathered in the yard when we returned, everyone except for Ms. Grimwood and Sibella that is.

I stopped and pulled myself away from Phantasma. She turned and looked at me with a bit of surprise showing on her face. I wasn't sure why I had pulled away from her, but I knew that something wasn't right there. Everyone seemed to be casually waiting, but there was someone missing from the group and no one seemed to be worried about her at all.

"Where's Sibella," I asked.

"She hasn't come back yet," Phantasma answered, "Both of you should have been back some time ago, Ms. Grimwood just sent me in to look for you both."

"Well then," I said getting angry, "Why aren't we in there looking for her?"

Phantasma didn't answer me after that. My anger snapped then. Sibella was missing and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. She could have been in trouble, she could have been hurt, or worse, and no one seemed to be doing a damn thing about it. I don't know why I did it. I had just fought for my life in that swamp, but I turned and ran back into the forest down the path that Sibella had taken that morning


	3. Chapter 3 Friends or

**-Friends or…-**

* * *

><p>"Wait," I heard Phantasma call after me, but she was far too late.<p>

By the time she had reacted to my running away from her, I was already passing into the dark forest. I ran straight past the trees without a second thought. I could still remember everything that had happened to me after I ran in there the first time. (And no, I did not trip this time.) Everything was still very fresh in my mind. Regardless of how much I had hated it, I continued to run into the forest.

It wasn't long before I passed up the forest and found myself in the swamp for the second time. It still scared me, being in there for the second time. I had barely gotten out of there alive the first time, and, for whatever stupid reason, I was back. My stupid body just reacted to what I was hearing. I still remember what it was like. It was like my brain was telling me, _Hey, idiot, remember this place, you almost died last time so why the fuck are you back_, but at the same time something else was telling me to keep going regardless of what I thought.

I ran deeper into the swamp paying no attention to the dangers that I passed along the way. None of them really mattered to me anymore. I don't know why I went back to that place. All I can remember was that Sibella was still out there and I was worried about her. She was a good friend after all, but wasn't it a bit much to be risking my life to go save her. Plus, she was a vampire, so, if she was in trouble, was there any way that I would be able to help her.

My thoughts began to swirl together as I ran deeper into the swamp. It all seemed to be running together. Why was I out there? Why was I putting myself at risk? Why was I doing it all for someone that I had only known for a day? And why the hell was I asking myself the same basic question over and over again?

I ran through swamp trying to forget all of the stupid questions that kept coming to my mind. I wanted to focus on only what was happening. Something bad might happen if I let myself get side tracked. The swamp seemed to go on forever. I felt like I had been running for hours, and I probably had been, when I finally came across Sibella. Well, I didn't exactly find Sibella so much as I heard her.

"Help," I heard someone calling from somewhere in the forest. It didn't take me long to realize that the voice belonged to Sibella.

I immediately changed my course and ran in the direction that I had heard the voice coming from. The scenes around me went by in a blur as I pushed myself into running faster and faster. All I could think about was that, based on what I had heard, Sibella really was in trouble, and I had to help her. It wasn't long before I came upon a small open area of the swamp where I found her.

I found Sibella struggling to break free of what looked like a bundle of vines that she had gotten herself tangled up in. It took me a minute to process what was really going on. The vines were actually the two arm-like tentacles of the Grim Creeper. He seemed to be trying to drag Sibella away for whatever reason, but she was struggling to break his grip making it difficult for him to keep hold of her.

I knew that I had to act as quickly as possible if I would save Sibella. I grabbed the closest thing to me that I thought I could use as a weapon, which just happened to be a rock. I know now that probably should have used my knife at the time, but, in the clouded state that my mind was in, I completely forgot that I had it. Well, a rock can be just as good if you know what you're doing.

I moved as quietly as I could, to avoid alarming the creeper to my presence. I wasn't sure if he even had ears, but we did have a conversation, kind of, earlier that day, which meant that, whether he had ears or not, he could hear people. Keeping all of that in mind, I decided to try and be as stealthy as I could. I moved up close behind the creeper and raised the rock in my hands high into the air. I brought the rock down on the creepers head, or what I thought was his head anyway. Regardless of what part of his body it was that I hit, the creeper fell down and hit the dirt.

Sibella staggered backwards as the Creeper's grip on her was released. She let herself breath for a moment and then she fell down onto one knee. I watched the scene play out for a moment. I turned my attention to the Creeper. I had hit him pretty hard, but I wasn't sure if it was enough to knock him unconscious. After a few minutes I decided that he was out and I went over to check on Sibella.

"You okay," I asked as I knelt down next her.

Sibella stared down at the Creeper, probably wondering if he was unconscious like I had been doing only a moment ago. After a few minutes, she shifted her gaze and looked up at me. It was the first time I had seen her scared. I guess it never really occurred to me that a monster could be afraid of anything, but I could tell that Sibella was afraid after what had just happened to her.

"Can you stand," I asked her after a moment.

I tried to help Sibella to her feet, but she wouldn't move. She must have been really scared if she wasn't even moving. I looked down at Sibella again waiting for her to give me an answer, but she never did. She continued to look up at me as if she were trying to decide if I were real or not. After some time, Sibella jumped up and threw her arms around me hugging me so tightly that I thought I might choke to death.

"I'll take that as a yes," I said with a good bit of effort.

Sibella let go of me, much to my own relief, and looked at me. She was trying to hide it, but I could see that her face was red. "Thanks," she said.

Now it was my turn to try and hide my embarrassment, which I've never been good at. "Never mind that," I said trying to change the subject, "Come on, we should get back to the house." Sibella nodded in agreement.

She led the way back to the house since I still had no idea where I was going. I wasn't complaining, after all, Sibella knew a way back to the house that avoided most of the dangerous parts of the swamp. However, it would still take us some time to get out of the swamp. Regardless, I was happy that I wouldn't have to go back in there for a long time. At least, that was what I was hoping at the time.

We came out of the swamp and found ourselves back in the forest. I started to recognize where we were, but Sibella continued to lead us back to the house. The forest soon ended and we found ourselves back in the backyard of the house. The girls had all gone back inside by that time, so no one was waiting for us, except Ms. Grimwood of course.

The minute we spotted her, I walked ahead of Ms. Grimwood. There was too much that had happened for all of it to be some kind of coincidence. Something was going on and I was determined to figure out what. I knew that if anyone could tell me what was up, it was Ms. Grimwood. However, it seemed that she was the one that needed questions answered.

"We need to talk," Ms. Grimwood said as I approached her.

"You're right," I said in response, "We do need to talk."

"Good," she said, "Since we are on the same page we will not have to waste time with worthless chatter. Now, come inside."

Ms. Grimwood hurried Sibella and me into the house. She seemed very uneasy for some reason. I guessed that Phantasma must have said something to her and she was starting to think the same thing that I was. Something was going on and it had something to do with the Creeper and that other person he mentioned, what was her name again, Remoltta? Whatever, the point was that I needed some questions answered.

We were led into the dining room, the other girls seemed to be nowhere in sight. Ms. Grimwood sat at the head of the table and motioned for me and Sibella to take a seat at the table as well. We sat o at the chairs on either side of Ms. Grimwood. The room was silent for a time. The only sound was the ticking of a clock, which I could not seem to find for some reason. After a minute, Ms. Grimwood spoke up.

"Now," she said, "As I'm sure you already guessed, Phantasma has told me what she heard from you, but I need to hear everything, from both of you."

I told Ms. Grimwood everything that had happened to me since I first entered the swamp. I told her how I had ended up getting lost and then about my encounter with the Creeper. I went on to tell her about how I ended up back at the house and then how I went to find Sibella. Afterward, Sibella told us about how the Creeper had attacked her. Of course, the winy little grunt had to blind side her to even get a grip on Sibella.

After both of us were done, Ms. Grimwood sat silently and stared at Sibella and me. Silence took over the room again, all except for that ticking that seemed to have no source. _Where the hell is that ticking sound coming from_, I found myself thinking. I know it sounds stupid, but it was really starting to get on my nerves. Seriously, how can I hear ticking in a house that has no clocks?

"Sibella," Ms. Grimwood said after a moment.

"Yes Ms. Grimwood," she responded.

"I wish to speak with our new student alone," Ms. Grimwood said, "Could you please retire to your room for now?"

"Of course."

With that, Sibella stood from the table. I looked up at her as if to ask her to stay, but I never said anything. Sibella simply gave me a reassuring smile and then made her way upstairs. Then, I was alone with Ms. Grimwood. I wasn't really scared of her, but I never liked being alone with a teacher, especially the principal, or whatever you want to call Ms. Grimwood. It was never a good sign and it always led to something bad happening. _You know_, I thought to myself, _I don't think I have seen any other adults here besides for Ms. Grimwood_.

"Well," Ms. Grimwood said, "I suppose it is only right to tell you why you were attacked today."

"What do you mean," I said.

Ms. Grimwood then told me the wildest story I had ever heard. In all honesty, I would have never believed any of it if I hadn't been at a school for monsters. It seemed that, last year, some crazy spider witch named Revoltta tried to take control of the girls with some kind of spell. However, it seemed that the gym teachers they had last year, the same ones that gave them the idea of jogging through a swamp every morning, had saved them and thwarted Revoltta's plans.

"It seems that now," Ms. Grimwood said, "Revoltta now wants revenge for her humiliating failure last year." She paused for a moment. "Then again," she said, "It might also be that the Creeper is simply delirious." She took one last pause. "Well," she continued, "Let's not panic until we know full well what is going on." She stood from the table and looked down at me. "For now," she said, "Dinner will be in an hour, spend the time as you will." Ms. Grimwood winked at me, as if she were trying to imply something with what she had said, and then turned and went into the kitchen.

I left the dinning room and went upstairs. I was making my way towards my room when I spotted Sibella leaning against a very bright purple door, which I guessed was supposed to be her room. She never did show me where hers was and it was only now that I realized that it was only the second door down from my own room. I couldn't believe that I never noticed, I mean duh, of course hers is the only one that's purple.

"There you are," Sibella said as she caught sight of me.

"Yeah," I said, "Did you need something?"

"Well," she said, "Actually I, Umm," she said. She seemed kind of nervous, as if she were struggling to get each word out. She was also redder than a beet by this point, which almost made want to laugh a little bit. It's kind of hard to imagine a nervous vampire, but if you ever actually see one it's actually kind of funny.

Sibella stopped trying to say whatever she was going to say, apparently deciding that she was never going to get it out. She then leaned in close to me. At first, I thought that she was going to try and bite me again and I panicked. Before I could try and get away though, Sibella closed the little bit of distance between us and, instead of biting me, she kissed me on the cheek. Then she darted into her room, quicker than I could even react to what was going on, and shut the door behind her.

I was now left alone in the hallway wondering what the hell had just happened. It seemed like my mind was way to slow to even process what was going on because all I did was stand there and stared at Sibella's door. I was completely dazed by that point. For a moment, I forgot where I was and what I was doing there. When I finally pulled myself together, I turned away from Sibella's room and went back to my own.

I sat down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. My stomach started growling, which reminded me that I was hungry and hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning. I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked what time it was. It was already four o'clock in the afternoon. No wonder I was so hungry, I hadn't eaten in almost eight hours. _How the fuck am I still alive after that_, I found myself thinking; however, my thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on my door.

"It's open," I said remembering that the lock was still broken.

The door opened and Winnie came into the room with a small box in her, umm, paws. "Hey there," she said.

"Hey," I said, "What's up."

"Ms. Grimwood wanted me to bring this up to you," she held the box up as if to offer it to me, "She says that it's from your parents."

"Oh," I said as I took the box from her, "Thanks."

"Sure thing," she said and, with that, she left my room.

I opened up the small box and pulled out my Mp3 player along with my headphones. I turned it on and let it shuffle through the songs that I had on their. I immediately felt relief come over me. Music was always the one thing that could calm me down no matter how worked up I was getting. It was also something that would allow me to think. My mind was finally cleared enough that I could clearly analyze everything that had happened since I had woken up. I lied in my bed for what felt like forever and went over everything that had happened. Even with my music there with me, I couldn't make sense of anything that had happened that day. Before I knew it, an hour had passed. I turned my Mp3 player off, put it into my pocket, and then began to make my way downstairs.

I got downstairs rather quickly and, rather than going to the kitchen for my food like I was supposed to do, I made my way straight for the dining room. No matter how hungry I was, there was no way that I would be able to stomach more Grimwood food. I would have rather starved to death than try and eat something that was going to kill me anyway.

I sat down next to Phantty, which is what everyone calls Phantasma as I found out some time later that day. I was talking with her while the other girls were getting their food. She didn't eat during meals for reasons that I am sure you can come up with on your own. The other girls joined us rather quickly after I sat down. It didn't take very long for me to realize that one of them wasn't there.

"Where's Sibella," I asked when I realized that she was gone.

"She's still in her room," Winnie answered without looking up from the food that she was stuffing into her face, "She said something about not being hungry."

"Is she okay," I asked somewhat worried.

"Probably," Phantty said, "She's probably just a little bit shaken up after what happened today, I wouldn't worry too much."

I wasn't so sure about that. I knew that what had happened to Sibella was a lot to worry about, but I didn't think it was anything to skip a meal over. After all, I had been attacked by that same weird little lima bean shaped thing too and I had at least come down for dinner, whether I was eating or not. The more I thought about it, the more that I worried about Sibella. Something was definitely going on with her and it was more than just being attacked by a creepy little weirdo.

I was beginning to protest, but I was cut short by Ms. Grimwood. She came into the room and walked directly over to me. I thought, at first, that I was in trouble for some odd reason, but then she placed something in front of me. I looked down and saw that it was a plate of food. It wasn't Grimwood food though. At least, it didn't look like Grimwood food. Actually, it looked like mortal food, like something that my mom would have cooked for dinner.

"Here," Ms. Grimwood said as she placed the meal in front of me, "You need to eat to keep your strength up."

I eyed the meal very suspiciously. It looked normal enough, but I had learned not trust anything in this school. Reluctantly, and very slowly, I took a bite of what was on the plate. To my surprise, it was actually food, real food, and rather tasty as well. Ms. Grimwood had actually gotten me something that I could eat. _I'm not going to die_, I thought.

"It's food," I said out loud, "It's real food."

"Good," Ms. Grimwood said, "I'm glad that you like it."

"How did," I said at a loss for words, "When did?"

"It was Sibella, actually," Ms. Grimwood said, "She told me that you needed mortal food, so I made an arrangement to get some from Callaway."

"Calloway," I asked.

"Oh yes," Ms. Grimwood said, "You have not met any of them yet. Calloway is a military school for boys. The school is just down the hill from here."

I wasn't sure what kind of importance this Calloway place had, but I was grateful that they were near by. After all, there didn't seem to be any mortals other than myself anywhere close to Grimwood. The fact that a school for mortals, military or not, was so close to a school for monsters was a surprise in and of itself. I would have never believed that a mortal school would survive if it was this close to a pack of monsters.

I finished my food quickly, even before Winnie finished which was an accomplishment itself. I stood up from the table and thanked Ms. Grimwood for the meal. Ms. Grimwood gave me a nod in response. I excused myself from the table and ran upstairs, but I didn't go to my room. Without thinking about it, I made my way through the halls of the house until I found myself standing outside of Sibella's room.

For a long time, I just stood there and stared at the door to Sibella's room. I started to wonder why it was that I was there in the first place. I had no idea why I had gone to Sibella's room, but my body seemed to have taken me there unconsciously. It was true that I wanted to thank her for asking Ms. Grimwood to help me out as far as the whole food thing went, but there was another reason that I was there that I could not figure out.

I stood there staring and wondering if it was right for me to bother Sibella in the first place. If she didn't go to dinner then maybe she did not want to be bothered. Plus, the reason that I was there was pretty stupid, at least, that was what I had thought. Maybe I was just being an idiot. Whatever the reason was that I was there, I decided to try and talk to Sibella regardless of how stupid I thought it all was.

"Sibella," I called.

No one answered me.

I knocked on Sibella's door hoping that I would get her attention.

"Sibella," I called again even louder.

_I wonder if the door is locked_, I thought. I grabbed the door knob and tried to twist it. At first, it felt as though it was locked, then I heard something break and then the tumbler clicked into place. The knob loosened and twisted, showing absolutely no resistance and the door creaked open slowly. _Well_, I thought, _it isn't locked anymore_.

I stepped into the room, realizing that this was the first time that I was ever inside of Sibella's room, and took a look around. The room was, in short, dark. It was pitch black inside the room, so much so that I couldn't even see two feet in front of me. All of Sibella's lights were off and no light shined in the room, not even the light from the full moon that night. It made sense thought, I guess, after all, she is a vampire.

I found the light switch on the wall to my right. I flicked it on and gasped as a bright purple light filled the room. At first, I thought that the whole room just looked purple because of the fact that the light in the room was purple. However, after I took a closer look, I noticed that everything in the room was the same shade of purple. The walls, the nightstand, the lamp that was on the night stand, and everything else in room was purple, even the sheets on the bed and the curtains around the bed, which were closed so I couldn't see the rest of the bed, were the same purple color. I was beginning to wonder how, when everything else around her was purple, Sibella's eyes had ended up being emerald green.

For a long time, I stood in complete awe of the purple room around me. I couldn't believe that anyone could stand sleeping in a room where everything was the same exact color. It seemed kind of boring to me. I thought that my surprise would keep me standing there all night. That was when I heard a very strange sound. It sort of sounded like the noise a bat would make if it was crying, if you can imagine what that would sound like. I finally came back to my senses when I heard the sound. I walked slowly towards the bed, which was where I had heard the sound come from. I reached the bed and I pulled the curtains aside, which, of course, broke off of the bed and fell to the floor. _Great_, I thought, _I guess that's another thing that I'll have to fix_.

I pulled my gaze away from the curtains still lying on the floor and I looked at Sibella's bed. At the head of her bed, sitting on her purple pillows, was Sibella. She was curled up into a ball with her arms folded across her knees and her head resting on her arms so that she was staring down at the bed. Her arms were covering her face as if she were trying to hide it from anyone who might see her, but I could still tell that she had been crying.

I stood and stared at Sibella. I wondered what it was that had upset her enough to make her cry. I'm not sure how I knew, but I was sure that it had something to do with me. I wanted to comfort Sibella somehow, but I wasn't sure what to do. I knew that something was bothering her, but I wasn't completely sure what it was. Regardless of my ignorance, I sat down next to Sibella hoping that I might be able to do something for her.

"Sibella," I said.

She didn't answer me.

"Sibella," I said again.

Still no answer.

"Hello," I said.

Sibella still didn't answer. I sighed and, as desperate as I was, put my arm around Sibella in an attempt to get her attention. That still didn't work. She just sat there and stared down at her bed.

"Sibella," I said in one final attempt to get her to answer me, "We're friends right?" I stopped and waited for Sibella to answer me. When she didn't, I continued, "Sibella, I want to help you, but I can't do anything if you don't tell what it is that's bothering you."

Sibella looked up at me with her emerald green eyes. I could see that she was still upset and I now saw that her eyes were red which meant that she had been crying for some time. At first, I thought that she was finally going to acknowledge me. Instead she did something that I had never expected. Quick as a flash, Sibella grabbed my shoulders and pinned me up against the head of her bed. She sat on top of me, her arms still holding me in place. She pulled herself closer and stopped when her face was only an inch from mine.

"Can I…." Sibella asked.

Before I could answer her, she closed her eyes and pulled herself closer to me. In the mean time, I was on the verge of having a heart attack. _What is she doing_, I thought. Sibella's lips were about to touch mine when she stopped suddenly. Was she really about to try and kiss me? There was no way that I was ready for that. I panicked. I tried to push Sibella away from me. I struggled to break free of her grip, but she was too strong for me. Before I knew it, Sibella pulled me towards her and bit my neck for the second time.

_Oh…she wanted my blood again_, I thought with a bit of disappointment. Honestly, I was so confused by this point that I really wasn't sure what I should be thinking. It was true that I really liked Sibella, but I wasn't sure how much I actually liked her. In short, I didn't know if Sibella was just my friend, or if she was someone more important.

I felt my strength beginning to diminish as Sibella drank more of my blood. I struggled to stay awake as I felt consciousness slowly slipping away from me. I could only imagine what would happen if we were found in that position the next morning. Phantty would never let me live it down. I was relieved when Sibella finally stopped.

"Sibella," I said after a long moment of silence.

Instead of an answer, I heard the sound of Sibella breathing very heavily into my chest. I looked down at her and realized that she had fallen asleep.

"Goodnight Sibella," I said.

As gently as I could, I lifted Sibella off of me and laid her head down on her bed. I made my way over to the door, making as little noise as possible. I turned the light off and left Sibella's room shutting the door as I left. I stood and leaned against Sibella's door for a long time. I stared up at the ceiling and thought about what had happened. The more I thought about it, the more I thought it better to just forget about it.

I went back to my own room. I tried to lock the door, but I remembered that the lock was broken. I grabbed my Mp3 player and turned it on. I put my headphones in and listened to my music, keeping the volume low for once. I sat on the edge of my bed and thought about what had happened, even though I just wanted to forget about it.

It wasn't long before a certain someone (Phantty) came up out of the floorboards in front of me and shouted, "Hey!"

I fell back onto my bed and rolled off of the other side. I laid there for a moment and looked up at the ceiling. I stood up and looked at Phantty. I blinked at her a few times just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating.

With my heart still racing, I said, "What's up Phantty?"

Phantty laughed at me for a moment, finding my reaction to her sudden appearance rather hilarious, and said, "Well, I was just wondering what it was that Ms. Grimwood had to say to you, and if Sibella was okay too."

I told Phantasma everything that had happened since I had run into the swamp looking for Sibella. I left out some of the more embarrassing parts of the story, like the fact that Sibella had kissed me. I even told her about my recent visit to Sibella's room, even though I did shorten it somewhat. I still wasn't sure what to make of that whole situation, but I thought that talking about it might help. It didn't, but I thought that I might as well try. When I finished my story, Phantty looked at me suspiciously.

"What," I asked.

Phantty laughed and said, "Oh, nothing, except for the fact that you're totally hiding something from me."

I took a step back. "What," I said trying to hide the fact that I was lying, "Why would I hide anything from you?"

"Oh, I can think of a few reasons," Phantty said, "Now spill it, what happened that you're not telling me."

"Nothing happened between me and Sibella," I said.

"I never said anything happened between you two," Phantty said, "I just said you were hiding something, which I am definitely sure of now."

"Nothing happened," I said trying to make up for my own idiocy.

"Something did," Phantty said.

"No."

"Did you kiss her or something?"

I turned around in an attempt to hide the fact that I was blushing, which probably just made me look even more suspicious. "No," I said.

Phantasma came up out of the floor in front of me so that we stood face to face. "Oh," she said, "Then it was more than just a kiss?"

"Phantasma!"

She started laughing again, clearly amused with the fact that I was uncomfortable. "Okay," she said, "You don't have to tell me, I'll just figure it out on my own. I'll see you tomorrow." With that, she disappeared under the floorboards.

I sat down on my bed again and looked down at the spot where Phantty had disappeared. I wasn't really angry with her. Actually, I was starting to like the fact that she would come up and talk to me every once in a while, even if she was coming into my room without permission. I looked over at the lamp on the nightstand. I reached over and turned the light off plunging my room into darkness. I lay down on my bed, closed my eyes, and allowed myself to be consumed by my thoughts as I fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4 Perhaps More

**-…Perhaps More-**

* * *

><p>I sprang up from my bed with the sound of thunder sounding throughout my room. I was sweating, badly, which I found strange because my room was freezing. Confusion began to cloud my mind. I wasn't sure what was going on or where I was for that matter. I thought that I was dreaming at first, but then I realized that I was in my room in the house. Something must have woken me up, but I wasn't really sure what it was. I had either had a bad nightmare, or the sound of the thunder had been enough to wake me up.<p>

I looked around my room. The room was covered in darkness. Normally, I would have gone back to sleep, or tried anyway, but I was getting a bad feeling. Something was telling me to stay awake. As if on cue, my door was suddenly swung open as a loud clap of thunder went off in the distance. For a moment, the sound of the rain falling outside was the only sound in the room. _Whoa_, I thought, _it's like something taken right out of a horror movie or something_.

I looked at the now open door through the darkness. It was strange. It was pitch black in my room, which meant that I shouldn't have been able to see, but I could. Well, it wasn't like it was perfect, but I could see more than I should have been able to. I saw the silhouette of Ms. Grimwood standing in my doorway with her hand still on the door. It wasn't completely clear to me, but she seemed as if she were out of breath. It looked like she had been running to my room for some reason.

"Get down to the dining room as soon as possible," Ms. Grimwood said between breaths, "We have a problem."

I started to ask what was going on, but, before I could even get a word out, Ms. Grimwood slammed my door shut and dashed down the hallway in a frantic run. I was left in my room even more confused than I was before. "What is going on here," I said out loud.

"I think that I can answer that question," I heard a familiar voice say.

I turned to the direction of the voice and saw Phantasma standing in the corner of my room with her back leaning against the wall. She floated a few feet off of the ground and filled the room with an icy blue glow that was bright enough to illuminate most of my room. I found it strange that I had not noticed her before. Even though she was talking to me, Phantasma kept her eyes on the door as if she were waiting for someone else to come bursting through it.

"Phantasma," I asked, "When did you get here?"

Phantasma looked over at me for the first time since I had noticed that she was there. "Right after Ms. Grimwood left," she said.

"Oh," I said, "Then can you tell me what's going on? Why does Ms. Grimwood seem like she's in such a hurry?"

Phantasma nodded. She floated over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it. For a moment, the room fell silent as I waited for Phantasma to speak. The room was filled with the sound of the rain hitting the window. Lightning flashed and lit up the small part of the room that wasn't illuminated by Phantasma's glow. A loud clap of thunder filled the room the next minute.

"Ms. Grimwood is running around gathering all of us," Phantasma began, "Because she wants all of us to meet down in the dining room."

"Why," I asked.

Phantasma sighed and then looked at me with a very concerned expression. "You might not like this," Phantasma began to say, "But, from what I heard, it seems that Sibella went missing some time ago."

"What," I asked, "What do you mean she's missing?"

"I'm not sure," she said, "I just found out about it, I have no idea what happened to her, or if she's even okay."

"We should do something," I said feeling more and more frustrated with each passing minute, "We should be out looking for her or something, we can't just sit around and talk about what happened."

"We can't do anything else right now," Phantasma said trying to calm me down, "Think about it, we have no idea where she is and no idea where to even begin looking for her. We should at least go and see what Ms. Grimwood has to say."

I stood up from my bed and looked at Phantasma with an expression of clear anger. I could feel my anger building with each and every second that passed. I felt like every minute we spent there was more time that we could spend trying to find Sibella. I wasn't sure what was driving me, but I knew that all I wanted to do was try and save Sibella.

"We can't do that," I said nearly to the point that I was screaming every word, "Sibella is missing and could even be in danger and all of you just want to sit around and talk about it?" I waited for Phantasma to react to what I was saying, but she didn't speak a word. I could see that she was becoming afraid of me as my anger continued to burn. "Well you can sit here and do nothing then, I'm going out to look for Sibella."

I bolted out of my room, not even bothering to close the door. I don't know if Phantasma tried to stop me, but if she did, I was too far away to notice by that time. I ran through the house as fast as my legs would allow me to. I burst out of the front door and raced down the porch at top speed.

The house was even creepier at night. I never imagined that it could be even scarier than it already was, but I was proven wrong that night. I didn't care how scary it was though. All I cared about was finding Sibella.

I ran across the front yard at full speed, the rain stinging my face as it fell. I raced towards the forest surrounding the house, despite the fact that it looked even more terrifying at night. The trees surrounded me in an instant as if they were hunters searching for a new victim. The rain and thunder continued.

The rain, being blocked by the trees now, seemed less of a nuisance than it was before, the darkness, however, seemed to intensify as the forest grew denser around me. The only light that I was given were the short flashes of lightning every few minutes, but it wasn't near enough. I slowed my pace in order to keep myself from getting hurt, but I still found myself stumbling around like an idiot. It wasn't long before I felt my ankle get caught on something, and I found myself falling face first into the mud.

I rolled over onto my back so that I was staring up at the sky, or at least what I assumed was the sky. I t was nearly impossible to tell in the dark.

"Sibella," I found myself screaming, "Where are you?"

A flash of lightning, which revealed the dead tops of the tress, followed by a loud clap of thunder was the only answer that followed. I started to cry. _Why_, I thought. What was I crying for? I had only known her for a short time, but here I was running through the rain and risking my life to save Sibella. And now I was even crying over her. I had never cared about anyone in my entire life the way I cared about Sibella, but why?

I heard someone screaming from somewhere deep within the forest. I sat up and looked all around me. I tried to figure out which direction the voice was calling from, but it seemed to come from every direction. I heard the scream again. I stood up and ran as fast as I could in the direction from which the voice seemed to be originating. It was still impossible to see, but I managed to keep myself from tripping.

I ran until a flash of lightning revealed a scene which horrified me. I only saw it for about a second, but I still recall every detail. I saw the grim creeper with his tentacle arms wrapped around a near unconscious Sibella. Next to the creeper, stood a rather tall woman with long green hair, she wore a long black dress and had dried out yellow skin. However, the strangest part about the woman was the fact that she had four arms.

I knew that I had to think of something fast. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the knife that I had still managed to be holding onto. I flipped my weapon open and began moving slowly towards the creeper using the sound of his and his companion's footsteps to guide me. I slowed my pace slightly as I felt myself getting closer to them. The sound of their footsteps was very clear to me now. I knew that the two creatures couldn't be more than a foot in front of me.

I prepared to attack at a moment's notice. I knew what had to be done, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to. Lightning flashed, I saw the creeper dragging Sibella behind him. He was only inches away from me. I jumped and grabbed the creeper by one of his tentacles. The thing dropped Sibella in an instant as the forest returned to its pitch black state.

"Help Revoltta," the creeper cried out.

I felt him struggling against my grip. He broke away from me and grabbed me around my waist. I was suddenly slammed into the ground and found consciousness nearly slipping away from me. The creeper made another grab at me, but I manage to roll away from him and get back to my feet. I gripped my knife and jumped at the creeper again.

Lightning flashed. The forest lit up again and I saw the creeper standing in front of me. I brought my knife down and, with a clap of thunder sounding throughout the forest, stabbed the creeper in his one big eye. The forest went dark again. I heard the creeper let out the most terrifying scream I had ever heard. A strange, slimy liquid slowly coated my hand. I pulled my knife out of the creeper's eye as his body began to go limp.

_I…..I killed him_, I thought to myself. The words repeated over and over in my head. It was the first time I had killed anything larger than a fly. The feeling, it was, horrible, it was terrifying, it was….it was….it was empowering. The feeling was indescribable. Having the power to control the life of another, it was like I was the one in control for once. At the slightest notion, I could end something's life, I could control its fate, I could decide its future, or whether it had one. It was the most horrible feeling in the world, and the greatest at the same time.

I was woken up from my self-indulgence by another clap of thunder sounding off in the distance. I turned around and saw the four armed woman throwing a punch at me. I felt her fist hit me on my right cheek as the forest faded into darkness again. I thought that it would have hurt a lot more, but it actually kind of tickled, although, it was strong enough to knock me onto my ass, so I guess that should count for something. I began to back away from the woman when I hit the ground. I soon found myself leaning against a tree.

"I will have my revenge," I heard the woman say from somewhere within the darkness, "And you will not stop me."

I looked up in the direction from which I could hear the woman's voice coming from. Somehow, even though it was pitch black out in the forest, I could see, at least, I could in a sense. It wasn't very clear, but I was able to make out the outline of the woman and most of the trees that were around us. I was difficult to determine what was going on, but it still amazed me that I wasn't even able to make out what I could.

I saw the woman pull something from out of her dress that looked like a wooden tuning fork. She pointed the thing right at me and it started to glow a bright yellow color. The light illuminated the forest for a moment. I saw the woman wearing a toothy grin as the light began to fade. I began to feel a sort of tingling feeling deep inside of my stomach. It was there for a second and then it went away as the yellow glow faded into oblivion.

"It didn't work," the woman said with a hint of surprise. I wasn't sure what she had tried to do, but I was glad that it didn't work. The woman looked around the darkness and her eyes seemed to fall upon something that was lying on the ground some distance away from her. I wasn't sure what it was, but I had my guesses. "I see," the woman said as her gaze fell upon me once again, "So, the little vampire girl has given you this power."

I didn't know what she meant at the time, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. She began walking towards me. I didn't have to guess at what she was going to do to me. I panicked. I threw my knife at her as hard as I could, but it missed and she continued advancing towards me without batting an eyelash. I tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go with the tree blocking my escape route.

My mind started racing. I knew that my life was going to end if I didn't find a way out of this situation and fast. I began feeling around the ground around me for anything that I could use as a weapon. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but whatever it was, I hoped that I would find it soon.

My hand skimmed over the ground for something, anything that could save me. I felt something brush my hand. I immediately grabbed it and tested its weight. It was a branch from one of the trees, but it seemed to be too heavy to lift. I knew that I would have to find something else, but there was no time. The woman was nearly to me. I lifted the tree branch, and, with seemingly inhuman strength, I swung it through the air. Lightning flashed once again, the forest lit up, and the tree branch struck the woman on the side of her face and cracked in two. I lost my grip on what was left of the branch and it went flying out into the darkness. I watched as the woman hit the ground in front of me as the forest went dark again.

I let out the breath that I had been holding in. The rain began to slow until it stopped altogether. The flashes of lightning became less and less frequent, and the thunder became a low grumbling sound. The forest remained as dark as ever. I looked up at the trees around me and noticed that my vision was becoming clearer. I was beginning to see details in everything, not just the outlines of them. It still blew my mind when I tried to figure out how I was able to see out there. I guess I just decided to forget it though.

"Sibella," I screamed as I suddenly remembered why I was out there in the first place.

I looked all around me for any trace of Sibella. I didn't think that anything could have happened to her, but if giant talking lima beans are real than anything is possible. I found Sibella, after some time, lying on the ground near the lifeless body of the creeper. I rushed over to her and tried to wake her. When that didn't work, I began checking her vital signs. She didn't have a pulse to be heard of, which, being a vampire and all, I wasn't sure if that was good, but she was still breathing, which I hoped meant that she was still alive.

"Sibella," I said trying to shake her awake.

No response.

"Sibell…" I started to say again, but I was cut off.

Sibella jumped and suddenly pushed me onto the ground. I panicked for a moment and immediately tried to push her off of me, but, even with the strength that I seemed to have acquired out of nowhere, I couldn't seem to move her. Sibella buried her face in my chest, and started crying, at least, I thought that I heard her crying. I finally calmed down and stopped struggling against her. The forest went silent. I don't know how long it was, maybe an hour, maybe only ten minutes, but, however long it was, all we did was lay there in complete silence.

I can barely remember what happened next, it all happened so fast, all I can remember is how confused I was afterwards. Sibella finally began moving again after what felt like an eternity. She moved so that her face was only an inch from mine. I couldn't tell what Sibella was thinking. It wasn't because it was dark out; it was because she was trying to hide it. The only thing that I could see was that she had definitely been crying I was sure of it now.

All I can remember at that point was that I was nearly to the point of going insane. So many thoughts raced through my head that I can't even remember a single one of them. That was when I remember things getting weird again. Sibella, what she did next, it seemed so very, strange, at least, at the time it felt like it was. She kissed me, and I'm not talking about a little peck on the cheek like she had done earlier. No, I'm talking about a hot, lip to lip, bad romance movie type kiss. The worst part is that it all happened so suddenly that I was completely convinced that it was a dream.

When Sibella finally pulled away from me, she sat up, which finally gave me room to get off of the ground. That was when it got awkward. I sat up and, instead of doing what I should have done, I just stared at Sibella. _What was that_, I thought. What in the world was going on? Why did Sibella just kiss me? I was so confused. Questions began floating around in my mind, but I couldn't find my voice so that I could ask them. All I could do was sit there and stare at Sibella. And let's not forget about the feeling like an idiot part too.

"What am I to you," Sibella asked so softly that I was barely able to hear her.

I never answered her. I didn't know what to say to that question. I wasn't sure what I should do. Okay, that wasn't true. I knew what I should have done, I knew what I should have said, but I didn't want to. Everything happened so fast that my brain just couldn't keep up with it all. I think my mind was still trying to figure what had happened with the tree branch, which was not where I wanted it to be right now.

"What am I to you," Sibella screamed at me.

I froze. I knew that Sibella was angry with me now, but I didn't do anything about it. No matter how much I wanted to say the words that would calm her down, I just couldn't. I just froze. I couldn't do anything but stare at her.

"Don't you care about me," Sibella asked. That was what finally woke me up.

"Of course I do," I said not knowing what I was doing, "Sibella I…" I never got past that point. I completely froze up before I could go any further. I knew what it was that I was about to say. I knew that I wanted to say, but I hesitated. A question came to my mind before I could say anything more. Was it really true? Did I really love Sibella, or did I just want to say it so that she would stop being angry with me. Even if it was true, was I really ready to say it.

"I love you," Sibella said.

I stopped breathing. I felt my heart jump up into my throat. I felt sweat beginning to form on my forehead and then roll down my face. After a while I began sweating even worse even though the forest was freezing. I completely froze up. Even if I wanted to continue what I was saying before, there was no way that I would be able to now.

"I know we've only known each other for such a short time, but," Sibella began to say, "I can't help it." She paused for a moment. "There was something about you, I was drawn to you. I just couldn't help falling in love with you."

I continued to stare at Sibella with the same stupid look on my face. I should have said something. I knew that I wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out. Looking back on it, I should have just told Sibella what I knew was true, but was too afraid to admit. It would have been a lot easier that way. I never did though. Instead, I just kept staring at her.

Sibella started crying after that. "I guess that you really don't care," she said.

"Sibella," I said as I finally found my own voice again.

I was far too late by that point. I don't know what I was thinking, but by the time I had called after her, Sibella was already gone. She had already gotten up and ran away with her face buried in her hands, and tears streaming down her cheeks. I was left sitting alone in the darkness calling out into the empty forest.

I sat, watched, and listened to the sounds around me until the sound of Sibella's footsteps faded into oblivion. I was alone then. I sat and stared out into the darkness and listened to the sound of the wind blowing all around me. I sat there for a long time. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Maybe I was trying to figure out what to do next, maybe I was still trying to piece together what had just happened, or maybe I was just thinking about sitting out there for the rest of the night. Whatever I was thinking, I just sat there, alone and in the dark. And I felt like the biggest loser who had ever been born.

_I have to fix this_, I thought. Whatever had happened, whether it was my fault or not, I knew that I was the one that had to fix it. I stood up from where I had been sitting for what felt like an entire lifetime and ran out into the forest after Sibella, even though I knew that she was long gone by that point. Eventually, I ended up standing in the front yard of Ms. Grimwood's house. I jumped onto the porch, completely missing the stairs, and swung the door open. The foyer of the house was just as dark as the forest was, but I could see Ms. Grimwood standing in the doorway that led into the dining room. She looked kind of angry, wonder whose fault that was.

"Where's Sibella," I asked as soon as I saw Ms. Grimwood.

"What happened out there," She said completely ignoring my question.

"Where is Sibella," I asked again.

"She's in her room, but,"

I bolted up the stairs without giving Ms. Grimwood the time to finish. I ran through the familiar hallways of the house until I found myself standing outside of a very purple door. That's all the farther I ever got though. I made it there, but all I did was stand outside of Sibella's room and stare at the door. I didn't know what I should do. I wasn't sure if going to talk to her was the best idea. Maybe it was better to just leave her alone. I ended up leaving.

I found my way back to my own room before long. I sat down on my bed. I looked out the window and out into the forest. I was now feeling even worse than I had been before. I had already made Sibella angry and now I had gone and passed up my chance to make it up. I almost felt like crying. I was ready to call it a night, but, before I could, I noticed a strange, icy, blue glow coming from the corner of my room.

"Hey Phantty," I said without even looking at her.

Phantty floated over and sat down on my bed next to me. "Something wrong," she asked.

I looked up at her. She was smiling at me as if she were trying to make me feel better. Normally, that would have worked, but I wasn't in any normal mood. "I really don't want to talk about it right now."

Phantty moved closer to me, which was beginning to make me feel uncomfortable. "Why not," she asked.

"I just don't," I said.

"C'mon," Phantty said, "You can tell me."

I looked up and right into Phantasma's eyes. I tried to look as if I were angry with her. I'm not sure how I planned to do it, but I was hoping that she would be afraid of me and would drop the subject altogether. It didn't work. All Phantasma did was laugh at me. In the end, I just gave up.

"Alright," I said.

I told her everything. I told her all about what happened after I left the house, and, unlike the last time we had talked, I didn't leave out any of the details. I even told her about how Sibella had kissed me, and everything that happened after wards.

After I had finished the story, Phantasma sat and stared at me for a while. She seemed to be trying to determine whether or not I had told her everything, but I couldn't really tell. I expected her to begin laughing at any moment, but she didn't. Instead, she decided to make me feel even more uncomfortable with the whole thing.

"So how was it," Phantty asked after a moment.

"What," I said with a bit of surprise.

"The kiss," Phantty said, "How was it?"

I felt the blood in my body rushing into my face. I tried to hide the fact that I was blushing, but that was nearly impossible for me. I could hear Phantty giggling the entire time.

"That's not the point," I managed.

"I know," Phantty said as she continued her giggling.

We sat silently for a while. I found myself wondering back into my memories. I was back in the forest. I went back to those moments out in the forest with Sibella. The memory kept replaying over and over in my head. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt, and the more that I wanted it to be nothing but a dream. I knew that I had to do something about it. I just didn't what I should do.

"Hey Phantty," I said after a long time.

"Yeah," Phantty said.

"What do you think I should do?"

"What should you do about what?"

"I mean," I said, "Should I go talk to Sibella?"

Phantty sighed. "Well," she said, "I knew that you ask me that one eventually." She paused for a moment. "But," she began again, "I'm going to answer your question with another question." She paused once again. "I don't think it should matter what I think you should do, or even what Sibella wants for that matter," she said, "And so my question is this: What do you want?"

Phantty went silent after that. I sat on my bed and thought about what she had said for a long time. What did I want? I never really asked myself that question before. It was easy though. I already knew what I wanted, and I had known for a long time. I had constantly second guessed myself because I was afraid that it wasn't the right thing to do. I was done doing that though. It was time I stopped making an idiot out of myself.

I stood up from my bed and began to make my way towards the exit, but I was stopped when Phantty grabbed me by my wrist. I turned around and looked at her. She was still holding me in place. I wondered what it was that she had stopped me for. The strange part about the whole thing, was that Phantasma looked as if she were upset about something, but she was clearly trying to hide it.

Phantty smiled at me and said, "Now why go after Sibella when you have a beautiful girl sitting right in front of you?"

I felt myself blushing again as I said, "Phantty, we're friends, I mean, I could never." That was all the further I got.

I hesitated for some reason. I knew that I should have just said what was on my mind, but I froze up again. I had thought about it before, Phantasma and me that is, but I always thought that it would be strange. Phantasma was a really good friend and everything, but I didn't think that I felt anything more for her, or did I?

Phantty smiled at me again as if to reassure me. "Of course," she said, "I was just joking. Now go talk to Sibella."

Phantasma finally let go of my arm. "Thanks," I said, "For everything." I bolted from my room with that final remark. I almost went back when I thought I heard Phantasma crying.

I ran down the hall until I found myself outside of Sibella's room for the second time in the same night. I stood there for a long time wondering if it was right for me to be doing this. It didn't take long for me to decide that I was just making excuses again. I knew that I had to stop hesitating. I had to stop avoiding what I knew was true. If I didn't confront this now, then it might never be fixed.

I reached out and grasped the door knob. Luckily, the lock on Sibella's door was still broken, so I was easily able to open the door. I found Sibella's room just as dark as the rest of the world. However, I noticed that, despite the fact that it was too dark for any normal human to see anything, I was able to see everything as though it were bright as day out. What the hell was happening to me?

I saw Sibella sitting at the head of her bed in a way very similar to how she had been when I had first stepped foot in her room. This time, however, she wasn't crying. She was just sitting there with her head buried in her arms. I stepped forward and moved towards Sibella very slowly. I knew that she was still angry with me, and I had no idea what an angry vampire might try and do to me.

When I reached the foot of Sibella's bed, I stopped and stared at Sibella. She hadn't moved an inch since I had entered the room. I took a deep breath and then sat down on the foot of the bed. I continued to stare at Sibella. I waited for her to notice me, or to tell me to leave, or to yell at me, anything that showed me that she was at least okay, but she never did or said anything. She just sat there silently.

"Sibella," I said.

No answer.

_Wow_, I thought, _now why does this scene seem so familiar_?

"Sibella," I said again.

Still nothing.

I crawled up the bed and sat down next to Sibella. I waited again, and even hoped, that she would yell at me and tell me to get out, but she still didn't do anything. Now I was really scared. It was bad enough that she was angry with me, but the fact that she was ignoring me completely meant that she was really pissed off.

"Sibella," I said, "I know you're mad, but please talk to me, I want to make this right."

She still didn't answer me.

_C'mon_, I thought, _please don't play this game again_.

"Look Sibella," I said, "I'm…"

"I'm sorry," Sibella said cutting me off.

I stopped talking. For what felt like the thousandth time, I didn't know what to say next. I was glad to hear Sibella talking to me again, but I had never expected her to apologize to me. After all, there was no reason for her to apologize. I was the one that messed up. At least, that was how I saw it.

"Sibella," I finally managed to say, "You don't need to apologize."

"Yes, I do," Sibella said, "Out in the forest, all I did was ramble on and on about what I wanted and how I felt. I never even gave you the chance to say anything, so, again, I'm sorry."

"No Sibella," I said, "I'm the one that should be apologizing."

"For what?"

"Listen," I said, "I should have just told before." I paused and fell silent for a long time. "I hesitated though," I began again; "I didn't know what was going on, much less what to say. I was too confused to think straight and I couldn't find the words. I should have just…"

"Ethan," Sibella said.

That was when I finally realized that I was making myself look like an idiot. I looked down at Sibella and stared at her for a long time. I knew what I wanted to say now. I knew that it had to be done now. I was still hesitating though. You can't turn back now, a voice in my head told me.

"Sibella," I said. She didn't answer me, but I somehow knew that she was listening to what I was saying. I tried to speak again, but my mouth went dry. I could feel my heart racing. I felt like my chest might explode at any minute. My stomach started churning as if I was going to throw up. Just tell her already, the voice started to scream at me. "I love you."

I felt all of the blood in my veins rush up into my face. I could feel my entire body heating up as though I were standing in the center of a burning building. I felt beads of sweat forming on my forehead and then coming rushing down my face. I couldn't even look at Sibella anymore. I had to look away from her, but I had never felt better about anything in my entire life.

Then it was silent. It felt as though it lasted forever, but I knew that it was really only a very short time. Yeah, silence seems to have a tendency to do that. I breathed deeply like I had been holding my breath for a long time and I was finally able to calm myself down for once. That was when I heard what sounded like someone walking around in the hallway outside of Sibella's room. I ignored it at that time though.

"Ethan," I heard Sibella say after a long time. I looked down at her. She was still curled up as if she was trying to keep warm, but she was staring up at me now. I could now see that her eyes were blood shot, which clearly showed that she had been crying for some time, and she still had tears running down her cheeks.

"Sibella," I said.

"I love you, Ethan," Sibella said.

She lunged at me and kissed me on the lips for the second time. This time, however, I didn't try to pull away.


	5. Chapter 5 Sibella and Phantasma

**-Sibella and Phantasma-**

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><p>"Ethan," I heard a voice whispering to me through the darkness.<p>

I was still asleep, that much I could at least figure out. The problem was that I felt like my mind was covered in a thick fog. My thoughts seemed so clouded and I found it difficult to remember what had happened the night before. I wondered who was in my room with me, but I didn't feel like acknowledging the voice. Instead, I ignored whoever it was and continued sleeping.

"Ethan," the voice said to me again a little bit louder. Whoever they were, they really wanted me to wake up.

I continued ignoring the voice. I kept telling myself that it was my imagination and that I was just hearing things. I'm not sure what made me think that way, but I continued to sleep while I ignored the voice. However, something else was telling me that I should acknowledge whoever was calling out to me. After some time, I finally managed to wake myself up.

For a moment, I was more confused than I had ever been. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Sibella sitting on top of me and staring down at me with a smile on her face. I also realized at that time that I wasn't in my room, but Sibella's room instead. I rubbed my eyes thinking that I was imagining things, but, when I opened them again, Sibella was still there. After some time, I remembered what had happened the night before and that I had fallen asleep in Sibella's room.

"You're finally awake," Sibella said.

She was still sitting on me and was now staring at me with and even bigger smile on her face than before. _Okay_, I thought to myself, _none of this is weird at all_. I found my thoughts wondering back to what had happened the night before. I couldn't believe that any of it had actually happened. I was actually beginning to think that everything that was going on was just a dream, but I guess the fact that I was still there was proof enough that it was all real, unless this was the longest fucking dream in the history of mankind.

"Something wrong," Sibella asked losing her smile.

"No," I lied, "Just a little tired."

Sibella smiled at me again. "Well then," she said, "Maybe you just need to wake up."

She leaned down and kissed me. It felt amazing. It was the first time that, how should I put it, it was the first time that Sibella hadn't caught me off guard. I don't think that there was a time when I had ever felt better. In short, it was probably the best wakeup call ever. Much better than my alarm clock back home.

Well, that feeling only last for about thirty seconds. That was when I heard a very familiar laugh coming from the corner of Sibella's room. That was also when Sibella rolled right off of her bed and slammed into the ground. I have to admit, it was kind of hard to keep myself from laughing at her. I leaned over the side of the bed to see if she was okay. She was lying on her back and was rubbing her head.

"You okay," I asked still trying my best not to laugh.

Sibella managed to pull herself up, with a little help from me, and look at me. "Yeah," she said after a moment even though she was still rubbing her head.

Sibella seemed to suddenly remember what it was that had startled her in the first place. Slowly, she turned towards the corner of the room where someone was beginning to over stay there welcome. I looked over as well. I hoped that that what I was thinking wasn't true, but I knew all too well who it was that I would see in the corner of the room, and she was probably still laughing. I knew it, it was Phantasma.

She was lying down while floating in mid-air, (If you could even imagine what that would look like.) and she was laughing so hard that I thought she would stop breathing at any moment. (Come to think of it, do ghosts breathe?) Blood began rushing into my face, and I felt my face begin to heat up as it turned bright red. I felt so embarrassed that I was beginning to wish that I could disappear. Yet, somehow, at the same time, I almost felt like laughing along with Phantty.

"Phantty," Sibella said, "I told you not to come into my room without knocking first."

"But," Phantty said as she somehow managed to finally stop herself from laughing, "I did knock first."

"No you didn't," Sibella said.

"No you don't understand," Phantty said as she pointed me out, "I knocked on his door not too long ago, and when no one answered I went into his room," she paused for a moment there, "When I found that he wasn't there, I came here."

"So why didn't you knock on my door before coming in?"

\ "Because I already knocked on his," Phantty said, "So, I thought, what's the point of knocking twice." After she said this, Phantty began laughing uncontrollably once again. Feeling as confused as ever, Sibella and I looked at each other for a moment before both of us joined in on Phantty's laughter.

"You know Phantty," Sibella said through her laughter, "Sometimes you're just a little too much."

"I know," she said, "But I actually have a legitimate reason to be here today."

Sibella and I fell silent at that. It was kind of strange to hear Phantty speak seriously, not that it was the first time, but it still seemed kind of out of place. It always seemed like everything was a joke when Phantty was talking about it.

"Ms. Grimwood needs to see everyone down in the dining room before breakfast. She said that it was important."

"Do you know what it's about," I asked.

Phantty shook her head from side to side. "I don't know anything other than the fact that everyone needs to be there," Phantty said, "Ms. Grimwood just told me to gather everyone before breakfast, the others should be downstairs already."

"Alright," I said, "I should probably head back to my room before I head downstairs though."

"We'll meet you downstairs then," Sibella said.

She hugged me and then she and Phantty left the room. I stood alone for a minute before I decided that I should leave too. I went down the hall towards my room, which was only two doors down from Sibella's room. I passed by Winnie on the way there. She seemed to be heading back to her room. I wasn't really sure why, but she seemed to be in a rush. Whatever was going on, it must have been important if even Winnie was in a hurry.

I got into my room and found myself a change of clothes. My shirt and my pants were both covered in mud, so I really needed to change. I changed into the new clothes that I had picked out, which was nothing but a pair of shorts and a black shirt that had a picture of death on it. I would've changed into a different pair of shoes, but I was already wearing my extra pair since I had lost my first pair already. Instead, I tried as best as I could to clean the mud that had built up on my shoes. That actually turned out to work surprisingly well. I somehow managed to clean off most of the mud that was caked on my shoes.

Satisfied with my new look, or as satisfied as I could be anyway, I left my room and went out into the hall. I found my way downstairs and made it to the dining room as quickly as my legs would allow me to move. I guessed that I was already late to whatever it was that Ms. Grimwood was calling down for so I knew that I needed to hurry. In the dining room, I found the girls all sitting at the table with Ms. Grimwood sitting at the head of the table where she would usually be when talking about something important. Ms. Grimwood gave me a somewhat suspicious look when I came into the room. _Yeah_, I thought to myself, _I know that I'm late_.

I found my usual seat at the table, the one that was flanked on either side by Phantasma and Sibella, and I sat down quietly. Sibella looked at me and smiled as I sat down next to her as if she were trying to reassure me. I smiled back at her. As if she was now sure that I was okay, we both turned our attention to Ms. Grimwood. Everyone fell silent as we waited to hear what it was that Ms. Grimwood had to say. She stood up from her chair and looked all of us over.

"Well," She began, "Now that we are all here, I can tell you why it is that I have called you down here this morning."

"Yeah," Winnie said, "What's going on anyway."

Elsa, who was sitting next to Winnie, appeared to elbow the girl in the arm, though she was trying to hide it. She seemed to be giving Winnie a warning, like she was telling her not to interrupt unless it was important. Winnie seemed to take the warning seriously as she looked down at the table and stopped talking. Tanis, who was sitting on the other side of Elsa, sat quietly and stared down at the ground as if she were trying to make herself discreet.

"Anyway," Ms. Grimwood continued on, "If there are no more interruptions." Everyone remained silent. "Then on to business," Ms. Grimwood said, "I contacted all of your parents last night and…." And then the whole room went into an uproar before you could continue.

"What," Winnie said.

"Why," Elsa asked apparently unconcerned with the fact that she had warned Winnie not to interrupt earlier but was now interrupting herself.

"Yeah," Phantty said, "Halloween isn't until tomorrow."

Ms. Grimwood clapped her hands together once and the girls all fell silent at once as if their arguments suddenly became invalid. "If you are all done," we all simply stared at her, "I contacted them because of that issue that occurred last night." Ms. Grimwood paused for a moment as if she were waiting for more complaints to erupt from the six students in front of her. When none of us voiced our complaints, though I was sure that all of us had some, Ms. Grimwood continued. "They are all worried and are on their way to the school as we speak, they will be arriving by tonight."

My heart stopped as Ms. Grimwood spoke those words. There was no way that it could be true. My parents couldn't be coming to the school, not so early. And did they even believe the story that Ms. Grimwood told them. Not that I knew what it was that she had said to them, but I had a few guesses and all of them would have sounded crazy to anyone who was in the right state of mind. It didn't matter what it was that Ms. Grimwood had told them, it wouldn't change the fact that they would be at the school in a few hours. If they found out what this school really was, they would never let me stay.

"My parents can't be coming to this school," I said out loud.

"Yeah," Sibella said as if she knew what I had been thinking about, "And besides, we resolved the whole problem last night, so why do any of our parents need to be coming tonight."

"Relax," Ms. Grimwood said, "I was unable to contact your parents last night." Ms. Grimwood indicated me as she said this. A relieved feeling came over me as she said that. "As for the rest of you," Ms. Grimwood continued on, "I told your parents that the problem had already been taken care of, but they insisted on coming regardless of that fact." The girls, as well as myself, were silent as no one voiced their remaining complaints. "Well then," Ms. Grimwood said after a moment, "I suppose that we can move on to breakfast."

After Ms. Grimwood finished, the girls stood up from the table in the dining room and began to file out into the kitchen all at once. I got up, after everyone else had left, and followed them out into the kitchen. While the girls all went to Ms. Grimwood to get their food, I went over to the counter some distance away from where they were and got a plate of seemingly normal food. At least, that's how I would've thought about it a day or two ago, but I now knew that it was actually normal food and not whatever it was that the girls were getting.

I made my way back to the dining room, not exactly the easy task when all of the girls are blocking your way. While it was true that I was the first one back and could sat down anywhere at the table, I decided to sit in my usual seat. I'm not sure why, but I guess that it was because it just felt right. I set my plate down on the table in front of me and looked at the food. It was strange, but, for some odd reason, the food didn't look appetizing in the least. And I knew that I was starving.

The girls all came in and sat down at their usual seats at the table. I had only been sitting there for a few seconds, but even I found it strange that I had yet to even touch my food. I just sat there staring at looking like an idiot. Sibella sat down in the seat next to me and set her plate on the table in front of her. I won't tell you what was on her plate, not because I don't want to, but because of the fact that you'll probably want to throw up if I even begin to talk about it. The strange thing was the fact that whatever was on Sibella's plate looked like it was better than what I had.

_Wait a minute_, I thought to myself, _what am I thinking? I'll die if I try to eat that stuff_.

In the end, I decided that it was better for my health, and my sanity, to try and eat my own food instead of trying anymore Grimwood food. Sometime after I started eating, Ms. Grimwood stood up from her place at the head of the table and made her way around until she was standing between Sibella and me. She leaned down close so that we would be the only two that could hear her.

"I need to speak with the two of you as soon as breakfast is finished," she said and then she left us to our meal.

I nearly choked on my food as Ms. Grimwood said those words. I tried to say something to her, but she left the room and went into the kitchen. There was no way I could say anything to her now, not without drawing attention to myself anyway. I looked over at Sibella to see what her reaction was to what Ms. Grimwood had said. The only reaction I saw was a quick glance over at me. It seemed more like a warning though. It was like she was telling me not to allow the others to see how surprised I was. I did my best to follow her advice.

I finished my breakfast quickly, mostly because I was trying to keep from making any sort of eye contact with any of the other girls, especially Phantty. If anyone could read my mind just by looking at me, it was her. When I finished with my food, I sat quietly and waited for the others to finish. Once the girls were done with their food, they took their plates into the kitchen one at a time and then proceeded to disappear into the various parts of the house. The room was now empty, with the exception of Sibella and me remaining in our seats next to each other. Ms. Grimwood was still in the kitchen doing, I don't, something I guess.

"So," I whispered to Sibella after it was clear that Ms. Grimwood would not be joining us for some time, "What do you think this is going to be about?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Sibella said after she took a moment to think about the situation, "But I would bet my fangs that it has something to do with my father."

I'm not entirely sure if that expression was supposed to mean that Sibella was positive that Ms. Grimwood was going to be discussing Sibella's father with us, but the idea really didn't sit well with me. In all honesty, the idea hadn't even occurred to me until that very moment. After all, Sibella's father was Dracula, the head of all vampires. If he found out that I, a mortal, was dating his daughter, the vampire princess I suppose she would be, well, I didn't really want to think about what would happen to me.

I could hear Ms. Grimwood doing whatever she was doing in the kitchen. I don't know what she was doing that was so important that she had to keep us their waiting for her to finish, but she must have been done because I heard her footsteps growing louder and then I saw her appear in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. She made her way over to the table and sat down at the head seat where she would normally be during meals. For a long time, the entire room was filled with silence.

"Are you two worried at all," Ms. Grimwood asked suddenly.

I wasn't exactly sure what she was asking us about, so I didn't answer her. I sat silently and stared down at the table. What do mean by that? Are we worried about classes today? Are we worried about me living through another day? Are we worried about Sibella's father coming later? Come on lady, you have to be more specific. Sibella apparently had no idea what Ms. Grimwood was talking about either since she seemed to have the same idea that I had, sit down and shut up.

"You know what I am talking about," Ms. Grimwood said seeming to be talking to no one in particular, "Right Sibella."

"I'm sorry Ms. Grimwood," Sibella said after a moment, "But I don't know what you are talking about."

"I heard you two talking last night," Ms. Grimwood said.

I felt my heart stop for a second. I thought back to what all had happened the previous night. I remembered when I had heard someone outside of Sibella's room. I had no idea what anyone might have been doing out of their room that late at night, but I had completely ignored them at the time. I pretty much just assumed that it was Phantasma, which wouldn't have bothered me since I knew that she would find out soon enough anyway. Now I was starting to wish that I had done something about it. Not that there was much that I could have done.

"I'm not saying that I am against any of this," Ms. Grimwood started saying, "But I am not sure that Dracula will be of the same opinion."

Ms. Grimwood looked over at Sibella, who continued to stare down at the table silently, as if she were expecting her to say something. I still had my head down as if none of this involved me. The way that Ms. Grimwood was talking made it sound that way anyway. That wasn't true though. This did involve me. I was starting to feel a strange feeling of guilt coming over me. I was starting to feel like everything that had happened up until now was my fault. I didn't want to cause any trouble for anyone.

"Listen," I started to say, "I don't…"

"You two," Ms. Grimwood said cutting me off, "Just need to think about what I have said here and what you are going to tell Dracula."

With that, Ms. Grimwood stood up from her seat and left the room, leaving Sibella and me in the dining room alone. As we sat next to each other, an awkward silence filled the room. I still felt as though all of this was somehow my fault. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that there was only way to solve this problem, and I didn't like the idea that I was having.

"So," I said after the silence started to become unbearable, "What do you think we should do about this?"

What I was asking was more of a rhetorical question. I already knew that there was one way that we could get out of this, but I didn't like it. I was hoping that Sibella would be able to come with something better. She did know her father better than I did after all. I wasn't very hopeful, but there was always a chance that something could happen.

Sibella finally looked up from the table as she seemed to come out of some kind of a trance. For a minute, she just sat there and stared at the wall in front of her. She looked over at me after some time passed, but I could tell that she didn't have any ideas either. I could tell that she wanted to say something though. She was afraid to say it. She was afraid to say it and I was afraid to hear it. We were both thinking the same thing. There was only way to get out of this. Neither of us wanted to accept it though.

"I'm not sure," Sibella said after remaining silent for what felt like forever, "But, for now, we should probably just not think about it."

"Sure," I said, being not quite so sure myself.

I knew that what she was doing was exactly what I was thinking of doing. She was avoiding it. We both knew what had to be done, and, even if it wasn't done now, it would be done later. No matter what we did, we couldn't avoid the fact that there was only one outcome to everything that was happening. I knew that, and so did Sibella, but I suppose that prolonging the inevitable for as long as possible was the best thing that we could do for now.

Sibella left the dining room after that remark. She said that she had something to do today and that we should meet up later. I was sure that, whatever she was doing, it had something to do with her father coming later tonight. Before she left, she kissed me. I wonder if she was thinking about whether or not that would be our last kiss.

I stood in that room for a long time. It's funny, but, I never actually realized how quiet silence really is. I mean, sometimes you reach these points in a conversation where there's an awkward silence, but it never lasts very long and it never truly feels like there was a silent point during the conversation. I don't know how to explain it, but, when you're alone, silence feels so much more intense. It was like I was truly experience a quiet room for the first time. Yeah, that whole thing probably just made me look like an even bigger idiot, but that was how I felt.

I can't remember very much from the rest of that day. It all feels like a complete blur to me anymore. Maybe it's because I was too busy thinking about what was going to happen later that day. I was also busy thinking about what Ms. Grimwood had said to Sibella and me. I knew that we had to think of something to tell Dracula, but nothing seemed like it would help us. I guess that my brief time of being happy was going to be even briefer than I thought.

I can only recall a few things that happened that day. I remember that, early in the day, I was trying to take my mind off of what was going on, so I decided to take a walk around the outside of the house. It's strange, but I noticed for the first time that day that the house had a moat around it. It's weird how certain things can be overlooked. Anyway, I happened to come across Elsa, Winnie, and Tanis at the volleyball court outside the house, which was also the first time that I had noticed that.

The three of them called me over and asked if I wanted to play a game with them. I was never any good at sports, but I decided to play anyway. I figured that, if anything, the game would help me forget about my current situation. Surprisingly, it did, but that was mostly due to the fact that I was complaining the whole time. This was mostly due to the fact that I was put a team with Tanis. Yeah, real fair, a guy who couldn't play a sport to save his life and a girl so small she can barely walk against a very clearly athletic werewolf and a frankenteen who was the tallest student in the school. Regardless of how fair it was though, I still had fun, even though Tanis and I got beat twenty-one to six. At least we scored a few points.

I also remember that, at some point during the day, I ended up running into Phantasma. It didn't really surprise me. After all, I was sure that she had been looking for me all day. The two of us walked around the house for a while and talked. I don't remember what the conversation was about, but it did lift my spirits a little bit. Surprisingly enough, Phantty didn't ask me a single question about what Ms. Grimwood had wanted to talk to Sibella and me about.

It was late in the day before I went to see Sibella again. She had told me that she needed to do something and that she would come find me after she was done, but I started to get worried after she never showed herself. I found her in her room. I wasn't sure what she was doing, but she was quick to hide it whatever it was. Anyway, we discussed, for a long time, what we should tell her father, but neither of us could come up with anything. I guess that I could always lie and say that I'm a vampire. I mean, really, how hard can it be to act like a vampire? Just give me some plastic fangs and let me bite a few necks. That would convince him. Who am I kidding? Dracula would probably be able to smell the mortal one me.

As Sibella and I were discussing what to do, the sun started to set. It was just starting to sink below the trees and the last bit of its light began to fade into oblivion when it started. It all started with a single howl that echoed through the forest. It came just as the full moon began to rise, which didn't make sense since the moon shouldn't have been full that night, but I guess I had seen weirder things since I started at Grimwood's. Anyway, the howl was very similar to Winnie's except for the fact that it was much deeper than hers was.

"My father is on his way," Winnie said in a very excited tone.

The full moon began to rise up over the trees as darkness began to completely consume the outside world and the inside of the house. It would have been pitch black in there if it wasn't for the candles that Ms. Grimwood had lit. Everyone was in the foyer now, and all of them were waiting for their parents to arrive, except for me of course. Ms. Grimwood sat in a chair in the corner of the room and watched everyone go about their business. Phantty, Sibella, and I were standing off to the side. Sibella and I were standing silently while Phantty continually told me about her father. Winnie was staring out of one of the windows with her tail waving from side to side frantically. Elsa and Tanis were standing on the side of the room that was opposite me.

"He's here," Winnie screamed.

Winnie ran from the window as quickly as her short legs would take her and stood in front of the door as if she were expecting it to burst open at any moment. As if on cue, the door swung open, nearly hitting Winnie as it did so, and through it stepped a terrifying creature. He stood at least seven feet tall. He had the face of a wolf and the white, sharp teeth to match. Dark brown fur covered his head and most of his body, and light brown fur covered his face and chest. He wore a pair of blue jean shorts, which had, at one time, been a pair of jeans.

If you were wondering about my reaction to this creature walking into our school, well, let's put it this way, to say that I was panicking would be an understatement. I had never imagined that anything like the creature that I was looking at could have ever existed. If I had seen this guy when I had first shown up at the school, I would have ran out of there so fast that I wouldn't have even gotten the chance to learn the name of the place.

"Papa," Winnie screamed as the monster entered the house. She ran up to the werewolf, jumped up into his arms, and hugged him tightly.

"Winnie," The werewolf said excitedly, "It's good to see that you are safe." He had a very scratchy sounding voice. It almost sounded like he was trying to growl every word he spoke.

"I was never in any sort of danger," Winnie said in response.

"As far as you know," the werewolf said to his daughter, "You never know what that spider-witch might be planning."

After a short talk with his daughter, the werewolf made his way over to Ms. Grimwood and began a conversation with her. From where I was standing, I couldn't hear anything that they were saying, but I had a few guesses. Most of them involved Revoltta.

After taking a bit of time to calm down, I shifted my attention from the werewolf and continued to listen to Phantasma talk about her own father. In all honesty, I had stopped listening to her a long time ago. The guy sounded nice, but Phantty could get carried away sometimes. I was almost happy when she was interrupted, until I saw who had interrupted her.

Phantty stopped her seemingly endless stream of words as a very loud stomping sounded entered the room from outside. Whatever was coming now was big, and, by the sound of it, there were definitely two of them. By the time the two of them had reached the porch, I was so scared that I didn't even have the sanity to question how the rotting wood was able to hold their combined weight. The door swung open and two large figures stepped through the doorway. The one on the left was about the same height as the werewolf, but the other one was taller than the werewolf was. He was so big that he broke the top of the doorway as he stepped through it.

The figure standing on the right was very large man, probably eight maybe even nine feet tall, with green skin. He was wearing a dark brown jacket over a light brown shirt. He was wearing dark brown pants and a pair of black loafers. He had dark black hair that was slicked back for some odd reason. However, his most interesting feature was the two bolts sticking out of either side of his neck.

The figure on the left was also a large man, though he was shorter than the other man was. The man on the left was wrapped from head to toe in bone white bandages leaving only a small portion open for him to see. His eyes, those were probably the scariest part about him. They were like two blood red glowing orbs. They were the kind of eyes that could strike fear into even the bravest of men.

"Dada," Elsa said as the two figures entered the room. She ran, if you could really call it running, to her father, the man that was on the right, and hugged him.

"Daddy," Tanis exclaimed almost at the same time as Elsa. She ran up to her mummy….I mean, well, he was her daddy, but at the same time he was a mummy. Oh man, what would call a mummy who is also a daddy? Wait a minute, that's it. Tanis ran up to her mummy daddy and gave him a hug.

The two fathers exchanged greetings with their daughters and then went over to join Ms. Grimwood and the werewolf who were still discussing something in the corner of the room. It was now starting to get late. I think it was just past midnight. Sibella, Phantty, and I were still standing in the same spot where we had been all night. Elsa and Tanis were still standing at the wall opposite of me, but Winnie had gone to join them by this point.

I was leaning up against the wall behind me. I was starting to get tired, and there didn't seem to be any sign of the last two visitors for the night. Thankfully, Phantasma had stopped talking to me about her father and had moved on to talking to Sibella. The two of them were standing right in front of me, but I wasn't listening to their conversation at all. I was too busy thinking about other things. That was when someone, or something, yelled at me. The strange part was that the person talking to me had to have been behind me.

"So," The unrecognizable voice said to me nearly destroying my ears in the process, "You're the one that Phantty has told me about."

I jumped. Okay, that comment actually makes it sounded good. Honestly, I nearly had a seizure. I whipped around so fast that I'm pretty sure that I did a complete 180 twice before I was facing the person that I was looking for. What I saw was a ghost. A tall phantom who was wearing a long black trench coat and a black hat, both of which made him look like he should have been part of the mafia. He had icy blue skin just like Phantasma's, and, oh yeah, he had no legs, or feet. His body simply ended in a point where his hip should have been.

The ghost grabbed my hand and shook it violently. "It's so goo to meet you," he said as he shook my hand.

"Likewise," I said trying my best to sound like I wasn't actually scared.

"Father," Phantty said.

"Phantty," her father said.

He let go of my hand, much to my own relief, and hugged Phantasma. To this day, I still wonder how those two were able to hug each other. I had experienced some weird things since I had started going to this school, but two ghosts being able to touch each other was probably one of the weirdest. Oh well, I guess it's just one of those weird ghost things that a mortal like myself will never understand.

"Where's my father," Sibella asked suddenly, "He should have been here by now. It's not like him to be late."

She looked at me. I don't know what she expected. I had absolutely no idea where her father could be, and I had no way of finding out. Maybe she just wanted some kind of reassurance, a smile, or a word of comfort, something to calm her down and let her know that things would be okay. The problem was that I hesitated. I wasn't sure what I should have done, so I just stood there and looked at her.

"Well," Phantty's father said after I did absolutely nothing, "He ran into a little bit of trouble on the way here."

Sibella turned her attention away from me. "What trouble," she asked.

"It's nothing that he can't handle," Phantty's father said trying to sound reassuring, "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I must go and speak to Ms. Grimwood."

Phantasma's father then left us and joined the other girl's fathers and Ms. Grimwood who were still standing in that same corner of the room. I watched as Phantasma's father approached the small group. He said something to Ms. Grimwood, to which she reacted with a good bit of surprise. I don't' know what he said, but it probably had something to do with Dracula not showing up as of yet. I watched as the group left the foyer and disappeared into the hallway leading to the dining room.

I looked over at Sibella, who now looked to be on the verge of tears. "Sibella," I said. I wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, but I never got that far.

Before I could say another word to Sibella, she whipped around and bolted out of the front door to the house. It happened so fast that I barely had time to figure out what was going on. I knew where she was going. She was going to go out and look for her father, but I couldn't let her go alone. Not after what happened last time. I started to go after her, but Phantty stopped me.

"You should let her go alone," Phantty said.

"But I," I started to say, but I stopped.

I stared at Phantty for a while. I could tell by that look in her eyes that she knew something that I didn't know. She had a good reason for stopping me, otherwise she wouldn't have done it, but she wasn't going to tell me. The only problem was that I didn't know if she wasn't telling me because she couldn't or because she didn't want to.

I nodded. "Okay," I said.

I wanted, more than anything, to go out after Sibella, but if Phantty was stopping me then I would wait, at least, for a little while. I knew that Phantty wouldn't stop me without a good reason for doing so. For now, I would trust her judgment. After all, she knew more about what was going on than I did.

I wasn't sure how long I would be able to keep my composure, but I knew that it wouldn't' be for very long. I decided to talk with the girls while I waited for word from, I don't know, somebody. I was able to keep myself distracted, most of the time, but my thoughts kept going back to Sibella. This wasn't really helped by the fact that the girls kept asking me why she had run off. All I could tell them was that I had no idea what was going on.

An hour had already passed since Sibella had run off. I decided to give up on my attempts at trying to forget about her, and was now sitting alone in the corner of the room where Ms. Grimwood had been before she had left the room. She and the parents were still in the other room talking about whatever it was they needed to talk about. I was starting to get worried about Sibella and my feelings finally got the better of me.

I stood from my chair and walked over to the front door. I tried not to draw any attention to myself, but that wasn't exactly easy. I was sure that everyone had seen me leave, including Phantasma. I didn't really care at that point. Someone had to find Sibella. If she had been gone this long then something had definitely happened to her.

I slipped out of the front door as quickly as I could and stepped onto the front porch. I looked out into the forest. Even with the moon being full, there was barely any light to allow me to see. This would have bothered me if it wasn't for the fact that I had somehow recently acquired night vision. With it, I was able to see in even the darkest of rooms. I moved to leave the porch when a very familiar voice stopped me in my tracks.

"So, you're going after her," the voice said.

I turned around and saw Phantasma standing in front of the door. She was staring down at me with a very serious expression. She almost looked heartbroken. I knew that she had seen me leave the house. There was no way that she hadn't. I wasn't sure why she looked so gloomy, but I tried to keep my composure despite that.

"I need to go after her," I said.

"No," Phantty said, "You need to stay here."

"But Sibella needs me," I said in response, "I know that she does."

"And what about me."

I actually wasn't supposed to hear that last part. She was speaking softly, which I took to meant that she didn't mean for me to hear her say that. The only reason I did hear her was because all of my senses seem to be improving for some odd reason. Something was happening to me to cause these weird changes, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Oh yeah, that wasn't what was important right now though.

I tried to look Phantasma in the eyes, but she was avoiding my gaze. Despite that, I could tell that she was about to start crying. I stood there staring at Phantasma like an idiot for a long time. It was in that time that I realized something about her that I never noticed before. I don't how I could have missed it. I mean, it seemed so obvious now that I looked back on it. Yet, somehow, it had taken me this long to figure it out. Phantasma liked me too.

I was struck dumb. I didn't know what to do anymore. Phantasma was a very important friend to me, and I didn't know what I would do if I ever lost her. I didn't want to hurt her, but I also knew that I had to help Sibella. I couldn't just leave her behind, but I also couldn't very well leave Phantasma alone. I had to think of something to do.

"Phantasma." I said using her real name. I held out my hand as if we were meeting for the first time. "Come with me."

Phantasma looked at me with a very confused look on her face. I could tell that she never expected what I was doing. I can't blame her. I didn't think I would do it either. I don't why was doing it though. Maybe I thought it would make Phantasma feel better, or maybe it was just some kind of self fulfillment. Whatever the reason, I knew that this was what I wanted to do. Phantasma remained silent so I continued talking.

"I need your help," I went on, "I don't know anything about this forest. I don't even know where I should start looking for Sibella. So, please Phantasma, come with me. I really need you."

It was silent for a long time. I stood with my hand held out towards her waiting for a reaction from Phantasma. I stared at her all the while, holding her gaze as she held mine, and I tried to figure out what she was thinking. She hesitated and, for a moment, I thought that she was going to walk away. No, if she walks away now I might never see her again. Then Phantasma gave me an answer. She took my hand and smiled.

"Alright," she said, "I'll help you."

"Thank you," I said with a smile. Together and still holding hands, Phantasma and I walked off of the porch and disappeared into the darkness of the forest.


	6. Chapter 6 Vampires

**-Vampires-**

* * *

><p>Phantasma led me through the forest. It was hard for me to tell, but I was sure that we were going towards the spot where I had stabbed the creeper. Phantasma's icy blue glow lit up the forest ahead of me and the silver light from the full moon lit up the rest of the forest. We ran through dried mud and some puddles that were left over from the rain the previous night. The tops of the trees had an ominous look to them when the moon was shining down on them.<p>

"Phantty," I said as we ran deeper into the forest, "Where in the world are we going."

That was when she stopped, and I kept running. I ran right through Phantasma and nearly slammed into a tree. I turned around and looked at Phantasma. She was pointing at something behind me. I turned around, looking in the direction she was pointing, and I saw a huge castle. A huge, terrifying castle that was sitting on top of a large rock formation that was surrounded by a huge canyon was what Phantasma seemed to be pointing out to me. There was only one way of getting up to the front door too. It was a very thin path that crossed over the canyon and took you right to the front door of the castle. _Lovely,_ I thought to myself, _why not put my fear of heights to the test while we're at it_.

"That's where were going," Phantasma said with a smile.

"And this place would be," I asked.

"Revoltta's castle," Phantasma said seemingly unfazed by the fact.

"Oh," I said, "Her again."

By first impression, I could tell that Revoltta wasn't the type of spider-witch thing that would give up easily, but seriously, why couldn't she just give up? I mean really, she already failed at trying to brainwash the girls a year ago. She already failed at trying to kidnap Sibella twice. I would think that she would've given up by now. Hasn't she ever heard of three strikes and you're out.

"And we can be sure that Sibella is in there," I asked.

I wasn't really questioning Phantasma. I was actually questioning whether Revoltta would really try to kidnap Sibella again. Seriously, if I were her, I would have given up a long time ago. After being nearly killed by my own spell and then, a year later, getting hit and knocked out by a mortal, I would have called it a day after that. Guess some people just don't know when to give up.

Phantasma nodded to me. "Yes," she said without a second thought to it, "If anyone could have given Dracula a hard time, it would have been her."

"So, even if Dracula isn't here," I said, "This is where Sibella would have come looking for him." Phantasma nodded again.

I was starting to regret ever coming out here. Maybe, if I had just stayed at the house, I could have avoided having to fight some evil witch. Maybe, if I had just told my parents what was going on, I could have gotten out of this school before any of this ever happened. Better yet, maybe if I had just ignored that guy and I hadn't punched him instead of walking away, I would have never ended up in this school in the first place. Maybe, that could have happened, but it didn't. There was no time to regret what I had done. It was time for me to find Sibella now.

"Well then," I said, "I guess we had better get going before something bad happens."

Phantasma and I walked up to the path that led up to the castle. The path looked even narrower up close. I risked taking a look over the edge and down into the canyon around the castle. My acrophobia kicked in right away. I nearly passed out. I felt myself beginning to become light headed and my vision started to go blurry. I pulled myself away from the side of the cliff and fell down to my hands and knees. I stared down at the ground until I was sure that I was still on solid ground. To describe how far of a drop the canyon was, well, I'm not even sure there was a bottom to it. The only thing I saw at the bottom of the canyon was pure darkness. It made me want to throw up to even think about how deep it was.

I looked up at Phantasma. She was, of course, dying of laughter. I looked back at the path and then back at Phantasma. "Ladies first," I said trying to sound like I wasn't scared.

"Well," Phantasma said still laughing uncontrollably, "Aren't you the gentlemen." She floated up off of the ground and then, completely ignoring the path, she flew over the canyon. "I'll see you on the other side," she called back to me.

_Oh, well isn't that good for you_, I thought to myself, _you can fly, so what the hell am I supposed to do, die_? I got up and stood in front of the path for the second time. I tried as hard as I could not to look over the edge, but, of course, I couldn't help myself. Damn my acrophobia. I started to feel dizzy again and felt myself on the verge of passing out. I tried my best to control myself that time. I tore my gaze away from the drop and forced myself to look straight ahead. I knew that there was no way that I could get out of doing this.

I looked up at the castle. I knew that the best thing that I could do was to try and keep myself focused on the sight of the castle. I took a deep breath and then took my first step out onto the path. I started to feel sick almost immediately. I kept myself from looking down, but it didn't stop my acrophobia. I knew what the drop looked like, and that was enough to make me want to throw up. If I hadn't been doing it for Sibella, I probably would have fallen from that path.

By some miracle, and thankfully so, I was able to cross the path and make it over to the castle. I reached solid ground again. I immediately fell over and curled up into a fettle position. I then proceeded to thank every divine figure that I had ever known even though I didn't believe in any of them. I was still dizzy and my stomach felt like it had decided not to join me on that journey. All I wanted to do was lay there and take a nap, but I knew that I couldn't do that. I pulled myself together and stood up again.

I felt more confident than ever at that point. My acrophobia was something that I could never get over, and, for once, I had actually conquered it. I was feeling pretty good about it, but it only lasted for a few seconds. That was when I spotted Phantasma. She was standing, or floating rather, in front of the entrance to Revoltta's castle, and she was laughing harder than I had ever seen her laugh before. No matter how good I felt about conquering my fear of heights, I knew that I must have looked like a complete idiot trying to do it. That pretty much killed my mood in an instant.

"Is something funny," I asked trying to sound angry.

"Sorry," Phantasma said still laughing, "But your face….Your face…..It was priceless." She continued to laugh even harder.

"You done yet," I asked.

"Sorry," Phantasma said again as she finally ceased her laughter, "But your cute when you get scared."

I felt blood rushing into my face. I tried to conceal the fact that I was blushing, but I couldn't. "Shut up," I said.

The two of us turned and we both faced the entrance to the castle. The door was large enough to fit a tank through it. Seriously, who would ever need a door that is that big? What could you possibly need to get into a medieval style castle that is that big? Even if there was something that big that needed to get into the castle, how in the hell were you supposed to get it over the path? And why the hell am I thinking about these things when none of them are at all relevant to finding Sibella?

"So, how are we supposed to get in," I asked.

"Here," Phantasma said as she held out her hand, "Take my hand."

I took Phantasma's hand without question. I wasn't sure what it was that she was going to do, but I trusted her. After all, she knew a lot more about this place than I did. Phantasma stared at the entrance to the castle intently for a long time. I started to wonder what it was that she was planning to do. There didn't seem to be any way to get inside the castle other than the door in front of us, and there wasn't any way to open it, not from the outside anyway. Suddenly, Phantasma sprinted at full speed straight at the door, and she pulled me with her.

_This isn't your best idea_, I thought as Phantasma drew closer to the door. I knew that Phantasma could pass through solid objects, but that didn't mean that I could do the same. Did she just forget that fact or something? My heart started racing as the door approached even faster. I closed my eyes. I guessed that there were only two outcomes to this. I was either going to be feeling the worst pain in my life in a few seconds, or I was going to die in a few seconds. That was when I felt a strange icy chill pass through my body almost like I had just run through a cold shower. We stopped and I opened my eyes. We weren't outside anymore.

I fell over on my hands and knees again after Phantasma let go of my hand. She started laughing again. I guessed that she knew that I would be okay the entire time and had decided not to inform me of that fact so that she could get a laugh out of it. I don't know why she finds it hilarious when I think I'm going to die.

"Don't ever do that again," I said.

"No promises," Phantasma said still laughing.

I stood up and looked at the room around us. The room was dark and was built using some very old stone blocks. Spider webs covered the majority of the room. I couldn't take a single step without getting one of the damn things stuck on my face. Dust and grim covered every wall, the floor, and the ceiling. When I got out of there, I knew that I was going to be nominating Revoltta's castle for dirtiest place on the planet.

"So where do we go from here," I asked.

"I'm not sure," Phantasma answered, "I was only here once, and that was a whole year ago," she paused for a moment, "I'm not really sure where to start looking." She stopped and thought about it for a minute. "I guess we'll just have to split up then, it'll be faster if we do it that way."

"Alright," I said.

I didn't really like the idea of splitting up with Phantasma, but neither of us seemed to know where to start so it seemed like the best way of doing things. After I agreed to the idea, Phantasma passed through the wall on the other side of the room and disappeared from sight. With no other way to go, I randomly picked one of the two doorways in the room I was in and left to explore the rest of the castle.

I searched the entire first floor, or at least what I was pretty sure was the entire first floor, and found nothing other than a lot more spider webs, a few torture devices that made me glad I wasn't living in the middle ages, and a mirror that seemed to reflect an evil version of myself that I immediately walked away from. I was convinced that there was absolutely nothing of interest to me on the first floor, I found a stairway and made my way up to the second floor.

I didn't seem to have any better luck on the second floor. All I found was more spider webs, and more weird things that I did not want to see. I ran into Phantasma once while I was searching the second floor, but she didn't seem to be doing any better than I was. After she left to search more of the castle, I found my way to another stairway and went up to the third floor.

The third floor was just as bad as the other two. I searched through most of the third floor and found nothing. I was about to find a way to go up higher in the castle, but then I heard something. I heard a very strange scratching noise coming from somewhere nearby. It almost sounded like someone was sweeping the floor. I followed the noise until I found myself in a particularly dusty room. It was there that I found Sibella, sweeping the floor.

"Sibella," I said, "What are you doing?"

She didn't answer me. She stopped sweeping the floor and stood silently for a moment. She then looked up at me with wide, evil looking eyes. She looked like she was okay, I mean, she looked normal, she just looked angry. That was when things got really weird. Her eyes suddenly turned red and she seemed to become extremely angry for some reason. She looked at me with eyes full of hatred.

"Sibella," I said.

Before I could say anything more, Sibella lunged at me and swung the broom that she was holding at my face. My instincts took over my body. You would never think it just by looking at me, but I was actually a really good fighter. I fell to the ground in order to avoid being hit by the broom. I was just barely able to get out of the way. Sibella swung the broom at me a second time. I caught the broom this time. I summoned my strength and pulled the broom out of Sibella's hands.

I looked down at the broom in my hands and then back up at Sibella. _How the hell did I do that_, I thought. Being a vampire, Sibella was always, and would always be, a lot stronger than me. On top of that, I wasn't even that strong by human standards, so how in the world did I manage to get the broom out of Sibella's hands? There had to be something that was weakening her, and probably making her act the way that she was. I didn't have much time to think about it though.

Sibella lunged at me again using her fists to swing at me now. I side stepped her attack and threw the broom away. I was, after all, trying to stop Sibella from acting strange not trying to hurt her. Sibella attacked me again and again. I kept avoiding her, but I knew that I would have to do something. I grabbed Sibella's wrists and did my best to hold her in place. I'm not sure how I was suddenly stronger than she was, but I was.

"Sibella," I yelled, "What is wrong with you?"

The only answer that she gave me was a very loud, and seemingly annoyed, hiss. I didn't know what her problem was, but I did know that I would have to snap her out of it somehow. I tried to think of something, and fast since Sibella was breaking my grip, but I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't end in one of us getting hurt. I had to do something before Sibella got away from me though.

"Sorry Sibella," I said out loud.

It took me a moment, but I managed to overpower her. I pushed her back as hard as I could. My plan was to slam her into the wall behind her and, hopefully, snap her out of whatever was wrong with her. As we got closer to the wall, I braced myself for the impact, but it never came. When Sibella hit the wall, instead of slamming into, like any normal person would expect to happen, the wall fell back, and we went with it.

We fell down into a dark tunnel. I immediately felt as though I was weightless as Sibella and I began falling deeper and deeper into the tunnel. For a moment, I thought that the tunnel would have not end. That was when I saw another wall approaching fast. I braced myself, for the second time, for what I expected to be a very painful impact, but the wall, just as the other one had, fell in on itself.

I was lying down for a while trying to figure out what happened before I remembered that I was still in the middle of a fight. I stood up and found that I was now in a large circular room. On the other side of the room, there was a fire with a black cauldron over it. Out of the cauldron ran five long tubes which coiled up to the ceiling and traced a path to the center of the room. From the center of the ceiling, the five tubes came down and hung a few feet over an equal amount of chairs, which sat in a circle in the center of the room. Each of the tubes had a metallic helmet like object at the end of them.

I saw Revoltta on the other side of the room standing in front of the cauldron. She still looked just as stupid as she had when I saw her the first time. The only difference was that she had a large bump on the side of her face, which was oozing some kind of green liquid, where I had hit her with the broken tree branch out in the forest. She was using two of her arms to stir whatever it was that was in the cauldron, and using her other two arms to add more ingredients to the mixture. I didn't know what it was she was doing exactly, but I was sure that didn't want to find out.

There was a man standing next to Revoltta. He didn't seem to be doing anything in particular, aside from waiting for something to do. He was tall, though would probably be considered short compared to the other girls' fathers, and he had neat dark black hair. He was wearing what appeared to be a tuxedo with a cape. He could have passed as a human if he didn't have the same light purple skin that Sibella had. Oh, and the fangs, I can't neglect to mention his fangs. I immediately knew that the man had to be Dracula.

I stood up and dusted myself off. I looked over at Sibella to see if she had survived the fall. She seemed to be fine, other than the fact that she still had that evil look on her face. Her eyes were still red and she still seemed like she was angry at something. I had hoped that the fall might snap her out of her angry spell, but I was wrong. I looked over at Revoltta. I knew that she had everything to do with what was wrong with Sibella. I had to put a stop to this somehow.

"What's going on her," I said to get Revoltta's attention. It worked.

Revoltta looked back at me and cringed as she caught sight of me. Her expression turned to pure anger and hatred. She turned so that her whole body was now facing me. Her hand came up and rubbed the side of her face where the bump was. I couldn't help but smile. _Yeah, that's right_, I thought to myself, _It's me again, come to stop you for the second time_. I don't know why, but I was kind of feeling a bit of over confidence knowing that Revoltta remembered that I was the one who gave her that bump. Maybe I thought she was starting to get scared of me. Just when I thought she was going to attack me, she raised her wand and pointed at me.

"You two," she said seeming to indicate Sibella and Dracula, "Take care of him."

Revoltta turned and went back to whatever she had been doing before I distracted her. As she did this, Sibella stood up and looked at me. She still had that same look in her eyes. At the same time, Dracula turned so that he was facing me as well. This could only end badly. Even if I was able to take Sibella in a fight, there was no way that I would be able to take on two vampires at once, no matter how good I was. The two of them hissed at me in unison, and then both of them lunged at me.

My instincts took over my body again. I moved as fast as I could and managed to dodge Sibella, and then, just barely, I was able to avoid getting hit by Dracula as well. The two of them turned back towards me and attacked me again. There was absolutely no way that this was happening. No matter good I was at fighting, there was absolutely no way that I could keep up with two vampires. So how in the hell was I doing it? It just wasn't humanly possible.

However I was doing it, I kept it up for a long time. There was only one problem. That was all I could do. Even if I had acquired some kind of amazing new power, all I could do with it was prolong the fight. I wasn't able to fight back against Sibella or her father. The best thing I could do was keep up with them. That couldn't last forever though. I was able to keep it up for a long time, but I eventually felt something hit me from behind. I immediately lost my balance and fell to the floor.

I now felt how tired I really was. I was just starting to feel like I was invincible. After everything I had been through, I didn't think that there was anything that could stop me. At the end of the day though, I was still human, and that meant that I wouldn't be able to endure everything. It wasn't until that moment that it really hit me. There was no way that I could do this on my own.

I looked up at Dracula and Sibella. The two of them were hovering over me. I looked into Sibella's eyes hoping that she might recognize me, or that something would happen to snap her out of it. It didn't work. She just kept staring down at me with red eyes that were still full of anger. She reached down for me. I don't know what she was doing, but I knew that I was probably going to die. That was when she just stopped.

"Give that back," I heard Revoltta screaming from behind me.

I continued to look at Sibella and her father, who both seemed to be frozen in place now. I stood up slowly, but neither of them seemed to make any attempt to stop me. I got to my feet and turned around to face Revoltta. She was standing some feet away from the cauldron now. The person who was now standing next to the cauldron was Phantasma. She was holding Revoltta's wand over the cauldron and was looking very proud of her self. I don't how she did it, but Phantasma had just saved my life.

"Why," Phantasma asked, "I think it'll make the perfect addition to your potion, don't you think?"

"Don't you dare," Revoltta said.

Phantasma dangled the witch's wand over the potion for a minute, and then she dropped it in. Immediately, Sibella and Dracula fell to the floor and went unconscious. The potion began to bubble and crack violently as some sort of reaction to the wand turned it into something deadly. Revoltta let out a terrible shriek.

"You will pay for that," She screamed.

She ran at Phantasma as fast as she could. I know that she could have never done anything to Phantasma even if she wanted to. If Revoltta even tried to do anything to Phantasma, she would just pass right through her. That didn't stop me though. As soon as I saw Revoltta make a move towards Phantasma, I jumped. I ran at Revoltta at full speed. I didn't care if she couldn't hurt her or not, I just knew that I wanted to protect Phantasma.

I caught up and grabbed Revoltta just before she got to Phantasma. She screamed and shrieked at me. She struggled and threatened me, but I wasn't going to let go of her. She had to be dealt with now. I grabbed Revoltta by her hair and shoved her face, and most of her head, into the now violently boiling potion.

Revoltta let out a loud, terror filled scream that could have probably been heard back at the house. She continued struggling against me, even more so than before. It felt like such a long time. I held Revoltta's head down in the potion until she stopped struggling and her body finally went limp. I let go of her and her body fell down to the ground. Most of her face had been melted off by the potion. Her head now looked like nothing more than a skull with long black hair. What little skin was still left on her was charred a deathly black color. I stood there staring at her corpse for a long time before Phantasma snapped me out of my trance.

"My hero," she said, even though she was giggling as she said it. She threw her arms around me as she said this.

"Come on," I said as we moved away from the embrace, "You and I both know that she couldn't have hurt you if she tried."

"I know," Phantasma said as she began to glow a bright red color, "But it was still sweet of you to protect me." We both smiled at each other.

That was when things began to go horribly wrong. The potion started to boil and crack even more violently than it had ever done so. Something between throwing the wand in there and shoving Revoltta's head in it must have caused the potion to go unstable or something. It seemed as though it was on verge of exploding.

"What's going on," I asked.

"This isn't good," Phantasma said, "The potions unstable."

"What do we do," I asked.

"We need to get out of here," Somebody said from somewhere behind me. I turned around and saw that the person had been Dracula. He and Sibella were conscious once more and now seemed to be back to their normal selves.

"Alright," I said, "But how."

"We fly," Dracula said.

"Fly," I asked, "But." I looked to the ceiling and, for the first time, realized that the center of the ceiling was none existent. The room opened up to the sky outside.

Dracula began to glow before I could proceed to tell him that I could not fly. His body suddenly began to shrink. He got smaller and smaller until he was about the size of a rat. His legs also shrank until they seemed to disappear altogether. His arms shrank as well, but they turned into a pair of wings. Now in his bat form, Dracula flew up and out of the room through the opening in the ceiling.

"Oh great," I called after him, "And what am I supposed to do."

I looked over at Phantasma hoping that she might have an answer. She didn't seem to know what to do. I knew that would happen. She couldn't carry me over the path, so how could she take me back. Phantasma shrugged and looked at me apologetically.

"I can fly over the canyon," she said, "But I'm not that strong. There's no way that I would be able to carry you."

"I can," I heard Sibella say.

I looked over at her with a bit of surprise. I knew that she was strong, but I didn't think that she would be able to do it. I mean, would she still be strong enough to carry me even if she were a bat.

"Are you sure," I asked, "Even in your bat form?"

Sibella looked at me with a bit of concern showing on her face. "Well," she began to say, "I've only ever carried smaller people, but I'm sure that I can do it."

I was completely convinced of her speech. If she couldn't do it, then I was going to end up falling for who knows how long down that canyon, and I might even take Sibella with me. Despite that, we might not even make it out of the castle. If Sibella couldn't carry me, then we might both end up dead. I couldn't let that happen. If Sibella and Phantasma could get out then that was enough. I wasn't going to have Sibella die trying to save my life.

"Sibella," I started to say.

"Listen," Sibella said before I could finish, "I know what you're going to say, but were not doing it. Even if I can't carry you, I'm not leaving you behind. If you think you're going to let us leave and you're going to stay then I'm not leaving. I'll stay here with you."

"Me too," Phantasma said.

I couldn't believe that I was hearing that. I don't think I could have asked for any better friends than these two. They would have rather died than leave me behind. I don't think I could name anyone that could say they would have done the same for me.

I knew that I wasn't going to let the two of them die, I'm not even sure they could die, but I still wasn't letting it happen. Since I wasn't really being given much of a choice I decided what I had to do.

"Alright," I said, "Let's get out of here."

"Okay," Phantasma said, "I'll meet you two on the other side."

With that, Phantasma disappeared through one of the walls. I looked at Sibella with a bit of anxiety. I wasn't sure if dyeing in a fiery explosion was worse than falling into a seemingly endless canyon, but I wasn't going to try and find out. I trusted Sibella. I knew that she wouldn't let us die. She took a step back and extended her arms out in either direction. She started to glow and her body began to shrink and change shape until she was in the form of a large bat.

Sibella flew over to me and latched her feet onto my shoulders. I felt her begin to pull on me as she tried to lift me up into the air. For a moment, I didn't move in the very least. It was that point that I began to completely lose hope. I started to think that it was all over. We were both going to die there. Then I felt my feet leave the ground and I felt a sort of weightlessness. Sibella began pulling me up into the air.

_Okay_, I thought, _now we just have to get over the canyon before I have a heart attack_. I knew that we weren't up very high, but I knew that I would start freaking out if I looked down even now. I stared at the wall and kept telling myself not to look down. I kept thinking about anything other than the fact that we were rising higher into the air every second.

We were almost there. We were nearly to the opening in the ceiling through which we would be able to escape. I only had to keep myself from freaking out for a few more minutes. We passed through the opening in the ceiling and I found that we were outside. That was when I looked down. It never failed. I started to get dizzy and light headed again, and it got worse with every passing second. I knew that I would probably pass out at any second, but I fought the feeling off as best I could.

I forced myself to tear my gaze away from the ground as Sibella began flying over the canyon. The feeling of passing out went away, but the fear remained. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the thought of how deep the canyon might be out of my head. I could see the other side of the canyon. We were half way there. For the first time, I actually felt relieved. I didn't think that there was any way that things could go wrong now. Except that I have the worst luck in the world.

I watched the other side of the canyon grow closer and closer. We were nearly there, just a few more feet. That was when it happened. We started to drop from the sky. At first, it was very slow, but it got faster with time. It was starting to look like we were going to drop down right into the pit. I looked up at Sibella. I couldn't see her face clearly, but I could tell that she was starting to get tired. I guessed that she was probably starting to pass out herself. I looked back at the other side of the canyon, just a few feet.

_Come on Sibella_, I thought, _Hang in there for just a little longer_. I knew that she must have been really tired by that point, but if she could just keep it up for a little longer. We dropped lower and lower with time. We were nearly level with the ground now. I lifted my feet up in hopes that the extra room would make the difference. It didn't look like we were going to make it though. Just a little further.

We soared over the ground with me feet just inches above it. I was so relieved that I didn't' even care that Sibella dropped me. I hit the ground hard and rolled over so that could lie on my back. I let myself breathe deeply for the first time in what felt like forever. Sibella flew down and landed on my chest.

Sibella reverted back to her normal form. She laid there with her head on my chest. I could hear her breathing heavily. It sounded to me like she had just got done running a mile. I knew that what she had just done must have been hard on her, but it sounded like it was more taxing than I had thought. I felt bad that I was the one that had been weighing us down, but I couldn't do anything to help. I wrapped my arms around Sibella and held her.

"Thank goodness you're safe," I said.

I let go of Sibella so that she could lie next to me. For a long time, we both just laid there and stared up at the full moon. Neither of us said a word that whole time. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of Sibella's breathing. After a long time, Sibella stood up and offered to help me do the same.

"Come on," she said, "We should get back to the house."

I took Sibella's hand and allowed myself to be pulled up onto my feet. We walked through the darkness of the forest hand in hand. I wasn't sure if we were going in the right direction, but I didn't really care. Honestly, I didn't care if we ever found civilization again, I was just glad that Sibella was okay.

"It's about time I found you two," I heard a familiar voice call out to us.

Together, Sibella and I turned around. Phantasma was floating through the trees, literally, at full speed flying straight towards us. When she finally caught up with us, she hugged us both throwing one arm around me and one around Sibella. Afterward, she hovered directly in front of us.

"I've been looking all over the place for you guys," she said, "I was starting to think that you didn't make it."

"We almost didn't," I said jokingly.

"Oh what a shame it would have been," Phantasma said, "It would be so boring around here without you two.

I gave her a playful shove. "Don't be like that," I said, "You know you would have missed us."

Phantasma began laughing and Sibella and I joined her. It didn't seem like the time to be happy. After all, we were still out in the forest and I still had to face Sibella's father, but I was happy none the less. It didn't matter what was still to come if I could at least enjoy this moment. It's too bad that moment didn't last longer.

"Sibella," Someone called out from the forest. Dracula stepped out from the shadows behind Phantasma. "You're okay."

"Daddy," Sibella yelled.

She let go of me and ran to her father. She threw her arms around him and held him for a long time. I couldn't blame her. After everything that had happened, if I were her, I would have done the same. After Sibella let go of her father, she took a step back. The forest fell silent. I looked over at Phantasma as if to say something. She seemed understand what I was trying to tell her. She nodded her head and then disappeared into the forest while waving goodbye.

"Daddy," Sibella said, "There's something that I have to tell you."

"Oh," Dracula said looking at me and then back at Sibella. By the looks of it, it seemed like he already knew what was going on. "What is that?"

Sibella told Dracula everything from day one. The whole story from when I first arrived at Grimwood's up until right before Dracula arrived. I mostly stood back and remained silent, cutting in at the parts when Sibella had trouble remembering certain details. I didn't think that she was going to go this far. I figured that she was just going to be blunt about it, but it seemed more like she was trying to make her father understand exactly what was going on.

After she finished the story, the forest fell silent for a long time. Sibella and I stood side by side. I stared at Dracula the whole time. I wondered what he was thinking, but it was impossible to tell just by looking at him. Whatever it was, I was sure that he wasn't thinking about anything good.

"So," Dracula said breaking the silence, "I understand what you are trying to tell me, but I don't understand why you seem so scared about it."

Sibella and I looked at each other. Sibella had told him everything right from the beginning. Was he getting the wrong idea? Or was he just denying what Sibella just told him? Maybe he was messing with me and the minute I turned my back he was going to snap my neck. Okay I'm thinking way too much into this, but crazier things have happened.

"Daddy," Sibella said, "I thought you would be angry."

"Why would you think that," Dracula asked, "He seems to be a perfectly respectable vampire."

Okay, just so were on the same page, I had no idea what he was talking about either. I looked over at Sibella hoping that she might know what her father was talking about. She looked to be just as confused as I was. I looked back at Dracula. Okay, this guy is very confused; guess I'll have to tell him the truth.

"Sir," I said, "I'm human."

"Also true," Dracula said, "But as of, let's see, about three days ago, you are also a vampire."

I still didn't understand what he was talking. I figured that he had gone insane while he was under Revoltta's spell. I mean, really, how could I be a vampire? There was absolutely no way. I looked over at Sibella again. She now seemed to understand what was going on, but I still couldn't figure it out.

"Sibella," Dracula said, "You've grown up so much. I can't believe how much you have grown in the last year." I was still confused. Luckily, Dracula finally decided to explain what was going on. He walked over to me and pointed out the two bite marks that had been left by Sibella. "As I'm sure you already know, Sibella bit you," Dracula began to explain, "If this had happened about a year ago, it wouldn't have made a difference, her powers were not fully awoken at that time. However, it seems that her powers have grown in the last year, and thus, her bite transformed you into a creature of the night." I couldn't believe that I was actually hearing all of this. "It should have taken longer, but the second bite accelerated the process."

I looked down at myself as if I were searching for some kind of change in my physical appearance. I didn't find anything. Nothing seemed different. I felt my teeth. On the top row, I could feel two sharp fangs beginning to form. I was so unwilling to accept it, but it made sense. It explained so much, my improved vision, my new strength, and my better reflexes. No matter how much I wanted to deny it, I couldn't. I was a vampire.

Dracula turned his attention away from me and to Sibella. He walked over to her and knelt down next to her. He put his arm around her and seemed to be using his cape to hide the two of them from my vision. Whatever he was telling her, he didn't want me to hear it. I didn't care really. I heard Sibella giggle a few times, but I didn't pay any attention to them otherwise. I was still trying to cope with the fact that I was a vampire.

"I'm a vampire," I said out loud. Luckily, it seemed that Dracula was done talking with his daughter.

"Well," Dracula said, "Not entirely." He paused for a moment before he went on. "You may have already begun to acquire some of our powers, but the transformation will stay take another day or so before it is complete.

Sibella and I stared at each other. I couldn't believe that this had actually happened. All this time, I was turning into a vampire, and neither of us noticed what was happening. I couldn't even figure it out when I was the one going through the transformation. Seriously, how do you not notice that you're turning into a vampire?

"Well," Dracula said, "I have to go." He turned to Sibella, "Remember what I said."

"I won't," Sibella said. I wasn't sure what they were talking about but I didn't care.

With that, Dracula turned into a bat. I stood staring up at the night sky as Dracula flew off into the distance and disappeared.

_I'm a vampire_, I thought. It was still such an overwhelming thought. I couldn't have dreamed that something like this would happen. If someone had asked me, "Where do you see yourself in a year," the last thing that would have come to my mind would have been, being a creature of the night. I didn't want it to be true, but I knew that it was.

Sibella put her hand on my shoulder. I looked over at her. When I looked into her eyes, my fear went away. I stopped thinking about it after that. Okay, so I was a vampire, so what. That didn't' change anything. All it meant was that I could be with Sibella, and that was enough for me.

"Hey Sibella," I said.

"Yeah," she said.

"What were you talking about with your dad before?"

"Oh," Sibella said, "This and that."

"Come on," I said.

"It was nothing," Sibella said, "He was just telling me how reluctant he was to let me go, but that if my powers had grown as much as they have then there wasn't any more that he could do for me and that it was okay as long as I was happy."

"That's all," I asked.

"Well," Sibella said, "He did want me to tell you something." She paused for a moment. "He says that, 'if you ever hurt my little girl, I will turn your life into the most miserable eternity you have ever experienced.'"

"Oh," I said, "Reassuring."

Sibella risked a smile.

"There was more wasn't there."

"No."

"Yes there was."

"No, nothing more," she said still smiling.

"You're lying," I said, "Come on why not just…"

"Ethan," Sibella said cutting me off, "Why don't you just shut up."

She kissed me and I didn't have any arguments about shutting up after that. Really, who would have any rebuttal after Sibella made such a great point? I didn't care if she never told me what else she was talking about with her father. That was the best kiss of my life. It was, at least, until I heard a very familiar laughter. I didn't have to look to know who it was. I chased after her, and so did Sibella. Sibella, Phantasma, and I ran the whole way back to the house. And we were all laughing the whole way there.

**The End**

* * *

><p><strong><strong>Final note: Once again, thanks for reading. I know that the end of this story was a bit lame, the end is always the hardest part for me cause i always feel like i need more, but then i feel like i put too much. Anyway, i would appreciate a bit of input on the ending, whther you think i went too far or if you think that i didn't go far enough, or even if you think that it was perfect, really, any input would be helpful. Thanks again.<strong>**


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